Effect of atmospheric pressure cold plasma (ACP) treatment on technological characteristics of chia (Salvia hispanica L.) seeds

The highly nutritious nature of chia seeds drives its increased utilization by the consumer and industries. This study is done to investigate the impact of atmospheric pressure cold plasma (ACP) based on air gas and dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) design. ACP treatment as an emerging non-thermal processing at different time (3 and 8 min) and voltage (6.5 and 8.5 kV) on technological characteristics of chia seeds including physicochemical, rheological, thermal, textural and morphological characteristics which are generally induced by carbohydrate and protein fraction. Results indicated an increase in water absorption index (10.36 ± 0.10 g/g), swelling power (10.43 ± 0.94 g/g) and decrease in gelatinization enthalpy (313.7 ± 0.9 J/g) at samples treated for 8 min at 8.5 kV. The lowest hardness (1390.5 ± 50.4 g) and highest peak temperature (94.79 ± 0.5 °C) is also observed at samples treated for 3 min at 8.5 kV. Changes in technological properties observed through ACP treatment are generally determined by the interaction of plasma activated species with molecular components, their depolymerization and cross-link formation as verified by FTIR analysis. Regarding, ACP treatment influences the structure of protein and carbohydrate macromolecules on the basis of its intensity.