Non-thermal Atmospheric Plasma (NTAP) is a cutting-edge technology which has gained much attention during the last decade in the food-processing sector as a promising technology for food preservation and maintenance of food safety, with minimal impact on the quality attributes of foods, thanks to its effectiveness in microbial inactivation, including of pathogens, spoilage fungi and bacterial spores, simple design, ease of use, cost-effective operation, short treatment times, lack of toxic effects, and significant reduction of water consumption. This review article provides a general overview of the principles of operation and applications of NTAP in the agri-food sector. In particular, the numerous studies carried out in the last decade aimed at deciphering the influence of different environmental factors and processing parameters on the microbial inactivation attained are discussed. In addition, this review also considers some important studies aimed at elucidating the complex mechanism of microbial inactivation by NTAP. Finally, other potential applications of NTAP in the agri-food sector, apart from food decontamination, are briefly described, and some limitations for the immediate industrial implementation of NTAP are discussed (e.g., impact on the nutritional and sensory quality of treated foods; knowledge on the plasma components and reactive species responsible for the antimicrobial activity; possible toxicity of some of the chemical species generated; scale-up by designing fit-for-purpose equipment).

Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) is a joining process that is controlled by several inputs or welding parameters. However, speed, current and voltage are the parameters that are most frequently used in setting this process. Cord area, yield stress, tensile strength, residual stresses, hardness and roughness are considered to be outputs or welded joints parameters. They are widely used when the design requirements are based on the cost, manufacturing speed, strength and surface finish. This paper seeks to determine the relationship between the welding parameters and the welded joint parameters of speed, current and voltage in butt joints (X-groove) of EN 235JR by the response surface method (RSM). The optimal joints when considering the design requirements of cost, manufacturing speed, strength and surface finish were achieved by using the multi-response surface (MRS). The optimal welding parameters reached when considering the design requirements of cost were 140.593 amps, 8.192 mm/s and 29.999 volts, respectively, whereas the design requirements of manufacturing speed were 149.88 amps, 9.261 mm/s and 29.999 volts. Finally, the welding parameters for the design requirements of joint strength and surface finish were 149.086 amps, 7.139 mm/s and 28.541 volts and 150.372 amps, 8.561 mm/s and 29.877 volts, respectively.

The demand for chemical-free beverages is posing a challenge to the wine industry to provide safe and healthy products with low concentrations of chemical preservatives. The development of new technologies, such as Atmospheric Pressure Cold Plasma (APCP), offers the wine industry the opportunity to contribute to this continuous improvement. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effect of Argon APCP treatment, applied in both batch and flow systems, on Tempranillo red wine quality. Batch treatments of 100 mL were applied with two powers (60 and 90 W) at four periods (1, 3, 5, and 10 min). For flowing devices, 750 mL of wine with a flow of 1.2 and 2.4 L/min were treated at 60 and 90 W for 25 min and was sampled every 5 min. Treatments in batch resulted in wines with greater color intensity, lower tonality, and higher content in total phenolic compounds and anthocyanins, so that they were favorable for wine quality. Among the batch treatments, the one with the lowest power was the most favorable. Flow continuous treatments, despite being more appropriate to implement in wineries, neither led to significant improvements in the chromatic and phenolic wine properties nor caused wine spoilage.