HVACP Processing of Almonds to Reduce Aflatoxin

High Voltage Atmospheric Cold Plasma (HVACP) treatment of agricultural products is an emerging non-thermal processing (NTP) technology that effectively reduces aflatoxins (AF) and microorganisms on almonds, other tree nuts and peanuts. HVACP-based NTP provides enhanced food safety by reducing incidences of food-borne illness. It is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly processing technology that addresses several NIFA National Challenge Areas. These include: 1) Global food security and hunger alleviation by increased protection of agricultural products from disease and pests and reduced food losses; 2) Low to no impact on climate change by providing an environmentally friendly, low energy and low carbon footprint alternative to chemical and thermal processes; and 3) Food safety by reducing the incidence of food-borne illnesses and death through an improved food processing technology. Industry adoption of this novel NTP technology will provide higher quality almonds, other tree nuts and peanuts to the consumers and increase global demand for U.S. almonds and other tree nuts.Atmospheric cold plasma is a natural phenomenon that has been harnessed and adapted for industrial purposes. The first atmospheric, low temperature plasma was invented by Werner von Siemens in 1857 (Siemens, 1857). Air was passed between two parallel plates containing an electrical spark (corona discharge) to generate ozone. Plasma can be generated in any gas environments (e.g. air, O2, He, N2, Ar, Ne, CO2) with either DC or AC current (Roth, 1995). HVACP capitalizes on the chemical properties of gases and the physics of electric field. When a gas is subjected to a voltage gradient of adequate strength; electrons can be stripped from the gas molecules (ionization). These electrons react with the bulk gas generating light, UV, and unique reactive gas species (ozone, oxides of nitrogen, peroxides, atomic oxygen, etc.), many of which can alter mycotoxins on the surface of almonds, other tree nuts, peanuts as well as on maize, wheat etc. and render mycotoxins non-toxic. In the 2017 USDA-NIFA-SBIR-005943 Phase I grant, NanoGuard demonstrated that a non-thermal processing using HVACP can significantly reduce aflatoxins on almonds without impacting quality. NanoGuard has also demonstrated that the reactive gas species (RGS) in HVACP have excellent bactericidal properties and they could therefore inactivate bacteria, fungi and mold on tree nuts, peanuts, corn, etc. as an added benefit.Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by specific molds and fungi that are toxic to humans and livestock at low part per billion (ppb) levels (Pankaj et al., 2018; Sarangapani et al., 2018; Shi et al.,2017; Bourke et al., 2017;). These mycotoxins are responsible for a range of health issues that have tremendous economic impact in both the human and animal nutrition industries. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that 25% of the world's crops are affected by mycotoxins each year, with annual losses of around one billion metric tons of food and food products. Economic losses occur because of: 1) yield loss due to diseases induced by toxigenic fungi; 2) reduced crop value resulting from mycotoxin contamination; 3) losses in animal productivity from mycotoxin-related health problems; and 4) human health costs. Additional costs associated with mycotoxins include the cost of management at all levels - prevention, sampling, analysis, mitigation, litigation, and research costs. Significant economic losses resulting from mycotoxins are well documented along the food and feed supply chains: crop producers, animal producers, distributors, processors, consumers, and society as a whole (due to health care impacts and productivity losses). Estimates of the costs of mycotoxins in the United States vary: one report estimated $0.5 to $1.5 billion/year (Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, 2003) and another estimated $5 billion/year for the U.S. an