Sublethal injury and recovery of Escherichia coli O157:H7 after dielectric barrier discharge plasma treatment

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma can be used to control food spoilage and food pathogens. However, DBD plasma may induce sublethal injury in microorganisms, constituting a considerable risk to food safety. This research was designed to investigate the sublethal injury and recovery of Escherichia coli O157:H7 after DBD plasma treatment. The results indicated that the sublethal injury ratios of cells rose along with the augmentation of treatment time and input power of DBD plasma under mild treatment conditions, whereas injury accumulation ultimately culminated in cell death. The highest sublethal ratio of 99.3% was obtained after DBD plasma treatment at 18 W for 40 s. When solutions such as phosphate buffered saline (PBS), peptone water, glucose solution, and tryptic soy broth (TSB) were used for cell recovery, TSB was proven to be the most efficacious, facilitating the completion of recovery within 2 h. The repair ratio of injured cells increased as the recovery pH (3.0–7.0) and temperature (4–37 ºC) increased. Moreover, Mg²⁺ and Zn²⁺ were demonstrated to be necessary for the recovery process, while Ca²⁺ presented a weak effect. Understanding the sublethal injury of bacteria resulting from DBD plasma treatment and their repair conditions can provide useful insight into avoiding the occurrence of sublethal injury as well as inhibiting the occurrence of recovery during food processing and storage.