ReviewApplications of cold plasma technology for microbiological safety in meat industry

•Ensuring safety and hygiene of meat and meat products is a major challenge for industry.•The cocktail of reactive species in cold plasma make it an excellent decontamination intervention.•Plasma acts rapidly against bacteria, bacterial spores, yeast, and molds.•Quality parameters of plasma treated meat remain under research.•Plasma processes in food industry are likely to become real in near future.

BackgroundElimination of microbiological contamination of meat and meat products is of paramount importance for consumer food safety. Cold plasma is a rapid, effective nonthermal technology for food applications which possesses several of the typical traits desired by the industry from a decontamination intervention to ensure food safety. The rapid microbiological inactivation achieved with cold plasma has led to an explosion of interest in this subject.Scope and approachThis review provides a critical summary of the studies pertinent to decontamination of meat and meat products using cold plasma technology along with a summary of the mechanisms involved. In addition, the review also discusses the effects of cold plasma on quality of meat and meat products, highlights some emerging applications of plasma technology in the meat sector, and lays directions for future research.Key findings and conclusionsMajority of the studies have demonstrated the successful application of cold plasma for decontamination of meat and meat products. With rapid on-going developments in plasma science, plasma technologies could be used to replace conventional decontamination technologies in meat industry in the near future.