Abstract:
Access to bio-safe food being a worldwide concern in
recent years, a significant interest has emerged towards
research on organic farming and innovative food processing
technologies. Cold plasma technology-based treatments are
gaining popularity as it can disinfect surfaces while being a biosafe
eco-friendly process. The interaction of ions, electrons, free
radicals, and excited-state atomic and molecular species with
surfaces makes them free from organic contaminants. Recent
studies have shown that the high energy species in plasma can
efficiently disable microbial pathogens such as bacteria, fungi,
and viruses. This study investigates the deactivation of
Colletotrichum musae, Fusarium semitectum, and
Colletotrichum gloeosporioides fungi that causes crown rot on
Cavendish banana using a locally fabricated cold plasma
treatment machine. Colletotrichum musae, Fusarium
semitectum, and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides have been
identified as the main cause for crown rot disease in Sri Lanka,
which has recorded losses over 85% for untreated bananas. The
results show that the percentage disease index (PDI) for cold
plasma treated samples were significantly lower than the
controlled, and the fungicide treated samples while not
adversely affecting the physicochemical and sensory properties
of the banana fruit.
