Zou Fanglei, Yang Miao, Wu Junhua, Wang Liangju, Wang Hongying
College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2025 Mar 16:1-25. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2025.2477799.
Climate change and food security issues have increased the demand for effective and sustainable technologies in the food and agriculture sectors. Plasma-activated water (PAW), a novel cleaning and disinfecting agent enriched with reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species, has attracted widespread attention due to its potential application in maintaining microbiological safety and other quality parameters of food products. Compared to traditional disinfection methods, PAW is rapid and effective for various products, unrestricted by the volume or shape of the treated sample, and is green and sustainable. This article reviews research progress on latest preparation methods, physicochemical properties, antimicrobial activities, potential antimicrobial mechanisms of PAW, and their applications in the food industry. In addition, current methods for preparing PAW suffer from low efficiency, poor antimicrobial stability, and a lack of technology validation and safety evaluation. To solve these challenges, the synergies between PAW and other technologies, the impact on food quality, and current methods for assessing the safety of PAW are highlighted. Technology readiness, energy consumption, international regulations, toxic intermediate products during PAW production, scalability, and important directions for future research on the commercialization of PAW are also presented. It provides the necessary theoretical basis for regulating the generation of high-throughput PAW and demonstrates the feasibility of PAW as a novel food cleaning and sanitizing agent. In summary, this review provides essential insights into PAW's safety, application potential, and sustainability for the food industry.
气候变化和粮食安全问题增加了食品和农业部门对有效且可持续技术的需求。等离子体活化水（PAW）是一种富含活性氧和活性氮的新型清洁和消毒剂，因其在维持食品微生物安全性和其他质量参数方面的潜在应用而受到广泛关注。与传统消毒方法相比，PAW对各种产品快速有效，不受处理样品体积或形状的限制，且绿色可持续。本文综述了PAW最新制备方法、理化性质、抗菌活性、潜在抗菌机制及其在食品工业中的应用等方面的研究进展。此外，目前PAW的制备方法存在效率低、抗菌稳定性差以及缺乏技术验证和安全性评估等问题。为解决这些挑战，本文强调了PAW与其他技术之间的协同作用、对食品质量的影响以及当前评估PAW安全性的方法。还介绍了技术成熟度、能源消耗、国际法规、PAW生产过程中的有毒中间产物、可扩展性以及PAW商业化未来研究的重要方向。它为调控高通量PAW的产生提供了必要的理论基础，并证明了PAW作为新型食品清洁和消毒剂的可行性。总之，本综述为PAW在食品工业中的安全性、应用潜力和可持续性提供了重要见解。
