Nutrients 2022, 14, 4653. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14214653 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients Review Dielectric Barrier Discharge for Solid Food Applications María Fernanda Figueroa-Pinochet 1 , María José Castro-Alija 2,3, *, Brijesh Kumar Tiwari 4 , José María Jiménez 2,3 , María López-Vallecillo 2,3 , María José Cao 2,3 and Irene Albertos 2,3 1 Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Católica de Ávila (UCAV), 05005 Ávila, Spain 2 Recognized Research Group: Assessment and Multidisciplinary Intervention in Health Care and Sustainable Lifestyles, University of Valladolid, 47003 Valladolid, Spain 3 Faculty of Nursing, University of Valladolid, 47003 Valladolid, Spain 4 Teagasc Food Research Centre, D15 DY05 Dublin, Ireland * Correspondence: mariajose.castro@uva.es Abstract: Atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) is a non-thermal technology whose ability to inactivate pathogenic microorganisms gives it great potential for use in the food industry as an alternative to traditional thermal methods. Multiple investigations have been reviewed in which the cold plasma is generated through a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) type reactor, using the atmosphere of the food packaging as the working gas. The results are grouped into meats, fruits and vegetables, dairy and lastly cereals. Microbial decontamination is due to the action of the reactive species generated, which diffuse into the treated food. In some cases, the treatment has a negative impact on the qual- ity. Before industrializing its use, alterations in colour, flavour and lipid oxidation, among others, must be reduced. Furthermore, scaling discharges up to larger regions without compromising the plasma homogeneity is still a significant difficulty. The combination of DBD with other non-thermal technologies (ultrasound, chemical compounds, magnetic field) improved both the safety and the quality of food products. DBD efficacy depends on both technological parameters (input power, gas composition and treatment time) and food intrinsic properties (surface roughness, moisture content and chemistry). Keywords: atmospheric cold plasma (ACP); dielectric barrier discharge (DBD); food decontamination 1. Introduction The World Health Organization states that microbiologically originating foodborne illnesses are a major threat to public health. This microbial growth is likewise the leading cause of food spoilage [1]. In the past, the means to preserve food for safe consumption involved the use of heat treatments. These unfortunately included impairing chemicals and organoleptic product properties. As a result, the demand for more natural, minimally processed products has been increased by consumers. In particular, industrialized coun- tries have increased their interest in products that use minimal processing. Minimal pro- cessing is defined as products whose nutritional content and freshness has not been sig- nificantly changed so as increase its safety and preservation. The more commonly used preservation techniques in the food industry are: high-pressure processing, high intensity pulsed electric field, pulsed light and irradiation [2–8]. Another non-thermal technology is cold plasma. Industrial cold plasma equipment has not been implemented in the food industry yet. Cold plasma is composed by gas mol- ecules, positive or negative ions and free radicals. The gas temperature is close to ambient temperature and it is obtained at atmospheric or reduced pressure (vacuum). Cold plasma does not present a local thermodynamic equilibrium [9,10]. Although several review arti- cles on cold plasma have been published discussing antimicrobial efficacy [9,11–13] they analyse the atmospheric cold plasma in a general way. However, there are no available Citation: Figueroa-Pinochet, M.F.; Castro-Alija, M.J.; Tiwari, B.K.; Jiménez, J.M.; López-Vallecillo, M.; Cao, M.J.; Albertos, I. Dielectric Barrier Discharge for Solid Food Applications. Nutrients 2022, 14, 4653. https://doi.org/10.3390/ nu14214653 Academic Editor: Lindsay Brown Received: 4 October 2022 Accepted: 29 October 2022 Published: 3 November 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- tral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu- tional affiliations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Li- censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and con- ditions of the Creative Commons At- tribution (CC BY) license (https://cre- ativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).