European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Sterilization of raw milk is necessary because microorganisms in raw milk negatively affect the quality of milk and it can cause some diseases.Non thermal atmospheric plasma contains ultraviolet photons and reactive neutrals such as radicals, excited and ground-state molecules which are very effective for sterilization. In this study a plasma jet as a source of non-thermal glow discharge has been designed and operated at 22 kHz.Raw milk wastransferred to the plasma reactor and the cold plasma jet was applied. It was concluded that the cold plasma jet is very usefulin sterilization of raw milk under ambient temperatures.Also the application of the cold plasma jet is a very fastthat operatesat low temperature with noexpensive initial investment.During applying the plasma jet on raw milk, it might be placed in strong electric field and numerous reactive gas species that could a negative effect on nutrient factors quality. It was found that the nutrients in milk are significantly reduced after the plasma jet application.