The application prospect of food cold sterilization and preservation technology is promising

Nanjing Agricultural University Zhang Jianhao

In recent years, fresh meat, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables and conditioned food and other prefabricated vegetable preservation packaging products have developed rapidly in China, but the short shelf shelf preservation cycle and secondary pollution have become the technical bottleneck restricting industrial development, so the research and development of fresh agricultural products and their conditioned food efficient cold sterilization preservation packaging technology has become the focus of
the industry.

Food cold sterilization and fresh-keeping packaging technology is one of the development directions of
international food science and technology.
Cold Plasma Cold Sterilization (CPCS) is a new type of food cold sterilization technology currently applied internationally, mainly using photoelectrons, ions and active free radicals generated by the medium around food to contact with the surface of microorganisms, resulting in cell destruction and sterilization effect
.
Compared with the heat sterilization technology widely used at present, the high-voltage electric field low-temperature plasma cold sterilization and preservation packaging technology is an important breakthrough
in the research and development of food cold sterilization and preservation packaging technology 。 This technology can be combined with modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) modified atmosphere preservation packaging technology, and the packaged products are sterilized by low-temperature plasma without secondary pollution; The plasma that produces sterilization comes from the gas inside the package, which does not produce chemical residues and has high safety; The low temperature plasma sterilization technology is suitable for sterilization of heat-sensitive fresh prepared foods
.

Under the support of projects such as "R&D and demonstration of key technologies and equipment for low-voltage electric field low-temperature plasma cold sterilization and fresh-keeping packaging", domestic scientific research institutes and institutes jointly develop low-temperature plasma cold sterilization core technology and equipment, MAP fresh-keeping packaging-low-temperature plasma cold sterilization automatic production line and other equipment complete sets of technology, breaking the current technical bottleneck
of food cold sterilization in China.
On November 28, 2021, the China Animal Products Processing Research Association organized experts to evaluate
the scientific and technological achievements of the project of "low-temperature plasma cold sterilization and preservation and cold chain logistics sanitize key technologies and equipment".
Experts attending the meeting unanimously agreed that the achievement has generally reached the international advanced level, of which the core technology and equipment of low-temperature plasma cold sterilization of high-voltage electric field has reached the international leading level, and the application and development prospects are broad, which will help solve the bottleneck of key technologies and equipment related to fresh food conditioning food in China and even the international fresh food industry, cold sterilization preservation and cold chain logistics, and the market space is huge
.

The main technical points of the project include: low-temperature plasma cold sterilization - short sterilization time and low energy consumption, suitable for the large-scale development of cold sterilization of fresh and conditioned food; The core technology equipment and automatic production line of low-temperature plasma cold sterilization - can sanitize foodborne pathogenic bacteria, and at the same time the degradation of pesticide residues on the surface of fruits and vegetables can reach more than 60%, effectively extending the shelf life and freshness period; Food cold chain logistics and special air sanitize technical equipment for animal feeding - special air sanitize technical equipment for animal feeding can be matched with modern farm air conditioning systems to effectively solve problems such as
chemical residues.

In terms of application effect, the cold sterilization test CPCS sterilization rate of lettuce was significantly improved, which effectively extended the shelf freshness period, and could effectively degrade organophosphorus pesticide residues in lettuce, and also had good cold sterilization and preservation effect and pesticide residue degradation effect
on strawberry, cherry, kiwifruit and other fruits.
At the same time, the cold sterilization and preservation research experiments on fresh food, Sichuan kimchi, Ningbo rice cake, etc.
, have achieved phased results
.

China Food News(Version 07, January 11, 2023)

(Responsible editor: Yuan Guofeng)