Research Progress on Effects of Cold Plasma on Cereal Quality

Cereals are important raw materials for human diet, while the nutrition and safety of cereals and cereal products are closely related to human health. Cold plasma is a new type of non-thermal processing technology, which is widely studied for enhancing the safety, nutritional and physicochemical qualities of cereals and their products, thus providing an environmentally friendly solution to the problem of global food security. The principle and classification of cold plasma are firstly introduced in this review, then it focuses on the impact of cold plasma treatment on the safety, nutritional, and processing qualities of cereals. Results show that cold plasma treatment can degrade the pesticide residues and mycotoxins, inactivate harmful microbes, and modify the protein and starch in cereals. Meanwhile, it also can improve the rheological properties and gelatinization properties of cereals products. Therefore, cold plasma has a great potential to be used in cereal processing and can be studied at a deeper level to provide references for the application of this technology in cereal processing.