Cold plasma maintains post-harvest quality of oyster mushroom by affecting fungal community and energy metabolism

Oyster mushrooms ( Pleurotus ostreatus ) are susceptible to deterioration and loss of quality during storage. In this study, the effects of cold plasma (CP) treatment on oyster mushrooms were investigated and the volatile flavor substances were analyzed by GC-MS. The results showed that CP treatment could delay browning and texture changes during storage of oyster mushrooms, enhance the characteristic flavor, and thus improve the quality. CP treatment can inhibit respiration while maintaining the basic physiological metabolic activity of oyster mushrooms, thus reducing nutritional loss and quality deterioration. In addition, CP treatment reduced the total colony count of oyster mushrooms by approximately 0.7 lg CFU/mL and delayed the increase in total colony count and total fungal count during storage. High throughput sequencing results showed that CP treatment reduced the abundance of pathogenic fungi. Therefore, cold plasma could serve as a potential preservation technology extending the post-harvest shelf life of edible mushrooms. • Cold plasma (CP) maintain postharvest quality of oyster mushroom, extending shelf life. • CP treatment enhance characteristic volatile compounds and improve flavor quality. • CP treatment can inhibit respiration and maintain higher energy charge levels. • CP treatment effectively reduce total colony count and change microbial community.