The main aim of the current investigation was to contemplate the impact of high-voltage electric field cold plasma (HVCP) on different quality characteristics (enzymes, microbial activities, coloring pigments, ascorbic acid, polyphenolic compounds, °Brix, acidity, and color index) of carrot juice in correlation with thermal processing. A carrot juice (250 mL) sample sealed in pre-sterilized food-grade bottles, which placed between two dielectric quartz plates for HVCP treatment. The gap between the plates was 30 mm, and a stable and uniform plasma dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) generated for 3 and 4 min at 60, 70, and 80 kV. Air was used as a working gas during the DBD-based plasma treatment. The observed rise in temperature was 2–5 °C during the HVCP treatment. A water bath was used to carry out thermal treatment (100 °C for 5 min). The maximum inactivation of enzymes and microorganisms was achieved with thermal treatment and then with HVCP treatment at 70 kV for 4 min. However, maximum retention of coloring compounds, ascorbic acid, total phenols, flavonoids, and tannins was found following HVCP (70 kV for 4 min) treatment compared to thermal treatment. The °Brix, pH, and acidity remained unchanged irrespective of treatments. These findings suggest that HVCP treatment at 70 kV for 4 min may be a good alternative to thermal treatment, and it may successfully be applied in carrot juice production, resulting in reduced enzymes, lower microbial activity, and improved bioactive compounds. The prospects of overcoming the existing conventional physical and chemical methods for sterilization make it a novel and more economical technique to maintain food’s natural nourishment, composition, appearance, structure, and freshness.

In this work, a defatted corn germ protein (DCGP) was pretreated with single frequency ultrasound at 20 kHz (SFU) and multi-frequency ultrasounds (20, 28, 35 and 40 kHz) (MFU). The microstructures, morphology, amino acid content, degree of hydrolysis, protein hydrolysate concentration and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity of the DCGP hydrolysate were analyzed. The results showed that both SFU and MFU pretreatments increased the ACE inhibitory activity of the DCGP hydrolysate more than that observed for the traditional method. Also, the SFU pretreatment showed the highest ACE inhibitory activity of 54% in comparison with that of the DCGP hydrolysates obtained via the traditional and MFU pretreatment methods. The results of ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, surface hydrophobicity studies, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed the extent of the changes that occurred in the microstructures and morphology of DCGP pretreated with SFU and MFU. The results also indicated that the hydrophobic amino acid concentration was comparably higher in DCGP pretreated with SFU and MFU than that in the DCG protein isolated via the traditional method.