Effects of non-thermal plasma sterilization on volatile components of tomato juice

Pasteurization is an important issue to keep from fruit decay due to microbes for fruit preservation. Conventional heat sterilization is based on thermal process. However, the flavor and nutrition components can be changed by heat damage. In this study, an apparatus was designed to produce non-thermal plasma (NTP), which can be applied in fruit sterilization. NTP can be generated through electric discharge in gaseous chamber. A simple NTP reactor may consist of two electrodes with a chamber and connected to a high-voltage power supply. The new technique of NTP was applied to keep fruit fresh. After the tomatoes were treated by NTP, the volatile flavor components were analyzed by GC-MS and were compared to heat treatment and non-treatment. The results showed that the quality of fresh tomato fruit was unaffected by plasma disinfection treatment, and the contents of trans-2-hexenal and n-hexanal were significantly higher than that by heat processes. NTP has less effect on volatile chemical compositions of tomato juice. NTP technology is a promising method for food pasteurization in the future.