Recent Progress on Degradation of Mycotoxins by Cold Plasma

Mycotoxins are toxic, which can endanger health of animals and humans, causing a lot of economic losses to the food industry. Cold plasma is an emerging non-thermal technology featuring green and high efficiency, which can degrade mycotoxin in an effective way. To provide a theoretical reference for the application of cold plasma in the degradation of food mycotoxins, this paper first summarized the mycotoxins degradation mechanisms after cold plasma treatment. The key point is the structure of degradation products and possible degradation pathways of aflatoxin, deoxynivalenol, and zearalenone after cold plasma treatment under different discharge modes and treatment conditions. What’s more, the degradation effect of cold plasma on pure mycotoxins and mycotoxins on food matrix were reviewed. Finally, the safety and feasibility of cold plasma treatment was talked about from the perspective of toxicity, which was separated into structural, cellular and animal toxicity of the mycotoxin degradation products.