Detoxification of hazelnuts by different cold plasmas and gamma irradiation treatments

The detoxification effects of cold atmospheric-pressure (AP,3000 L/h of air, 25 kHz, 655 W-1.7 min) and low-pressure (LP,air-100 W-30 min) plasmas and gamma irradiation(GMI,10 kGy-10 min) treatments on different concentrations of pure aflatoxin B1(AFB1) and AFB1 + B2 (TotAFs) as well as same toxins spiked on hazelnut were investigated. Both plasmas reduced 72-73% of AFB1 (3 ppb) spiked on hazelnuts while GMI reduced 47% of AFB1. TotAFs (6 ppb) reductions on hazelnut after both plasmas were 70-71%, which was also higher than that of GMI (15.5%). However, the reductions in pure AFB1 at 1-50 ppb and TotAFs at 1.03-51.5 ppb after GMI (97-100%) were higher than those of AP (55-75%) and LP (69-90%) plasmas. AP plasma has the potential to be an alternative to conventional detoxification methods because it is both effective on aflatoxins in foods and maintains the sensory attributes of food evaluated by a sensory panel.