Cold plasma for control of fungi and mycotoxins in foods: Decontamination efficacy, detoxification, food quality, and safety

초록

Fungal contamination and mycotoxin accumulation remain among the most difficult food-safety problems to control because the producing organism and the preformed toxin are distinct targets with different susceptibilities to intervention. Cold plasma has therefore attracted attention as a non-thermal technology capable of damaging fungal cells and spores while also chemically transforming mycotoxins. Yet the literature is frequently interpreted through isolated endpoints: fungal log reduction, parent-toxin disappearance, or short-term quality retention. This review critically integrates these endpoints into a single evidence chain spanning fungal inactivation, suppression of subsequent toxin production, degradation of existing mycotoxins, identification and toxicological evaluation of transformation products, and preservation of food quality and safety. The review first summarizes cold plasma generation, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species chemistry, major reactor geometries, and direct, indirect, and plasma-activated-liquid treatment routes. It then compares fungal-control evidence across food commodities and examines how species, spore state, plasma conditions, and matrix properties govern efficacy and post-treatment recovery. For mycotoxins, evidence for aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, ochratoxin A, fumonisins, T-2/HT-2 toxins, and patulin is evaluated with explicit separation of degradation from demonstrated detoxification. Recent studies increasingly identify transformation products and, in a few cases, verify reduced cytotoxicity or in vivo toxicity, but this level of evidence remains uncommon. Food composition, moisture, porosity, surface accessibility, reactive-species quenching, and lipid/protein oxidation are shown to define the practical efficacy-quality-safety window. Finally, the review analyzes dose standardization, treatment uniformity, energy efficiency, continuous processing, scale-up, and regulatory barriers. The central conclusion is that industrial translation requires moving beyond percentage toxin removal toward integrated validation of durable fungal control, toxin re-accumulation prevention, verified detoxification, product quality, toxicological safety, and scalable process performance.

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