Mung Bean Disinfection Using Cold Atmospheric Plasma - a Feasibility Study

The consumption of raw sprouted seeds and beans has led to a large number of food poisoning outbreaks in many different countries. Outbreaks can occur on an international scale with contaminated seeds from one country being distributed to many different countries for sprouting. Considerable research has focused on new decontamination methods for pathogens on seeds for sprouting. Whilst some of these techniques have shown promise for microbial decontamination, they have proved to be highly variable in their efficacy. The treatment of seeds for sprouting requires a careful balance between decontaminating the pathogenic species whilst not affecting the germination of the seed. Washing with water or chemicals, such as chlorine, are treatments that have been investigated with limited consistency. This project will investigate cold atmospheric plasma, a technique to generate an abundance of highly reactive oxygen species for the disinfection of Salmonella species on mung beans. Plasma impacts on seed germination as well as quality parameters (colour and texture) of sprouted seeds will be investigated using conditions that demonstrate effective disinfection.