Effects of feed gas composition during dielectric barrier discharge cold plasma treatment on physicochemical attributes, total phenolic content, and storability of fresh Tangier figs

Figs ( Ficus carica L.) are highly nutritious fruits that offer considerable health benefits. Their management after harvest is a significant challenge due to rapid spoilage. Marketability is limited by their highly perishable nature, driven by high moisture content and the risk of pathogen contamination. Contamination can occur during growth, harvesting, drying, storage, transportation, and handling. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of pre-treating fresh figs cv. ‘Tangier’ with dielectric barrier discharge cold atmospheric plasma (DBD–ACP air ) and nitrogen-enriched cold atmospheric plasma (DBD–ACP N2 ) for 2 min, followed by storage for 21 days at 5 °C. The fruits were evaluated for weight loss, firmness, color attributes, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), total phenolic content (TPC), and microbial load. Plasma-treated figs (DBD–ACP air ) exhibited lower weight loss (5% ± 0.78%), followed by DBD–ACP N2 (7% ± 1.37%), compared with the untreated control (8.38% ± 0.75%). DBD–ACP air (147.96 ± 12.51 mg GAE/100 mL), followed by DBD–ACP N2 (142.68 ± 10.88 mg GAE/100 mL), retained the highest TPC levels, better than the control (135.18 ± 9.34 mg GAE/100 mL), at the end of storage on Day 21. Treated figs showed better retention of TSS and TA during storage, while untreated figs showed a decline in TA levels from 0.53% ± 0.02% to 0.35% ± 0.03% on the last day of storage. Among the color parameters, only the b* value showed slight changes during storage. Both DBD–ACP air and DBD–ACP N2 significantly ( p < 0.05) reduced microbial growth throughout the storage period. The findings indicate that DBD treatments can maintain the overall quality of fresh figs while demonstrating potential as a promising technology for microbial decontamination.