Application of new innovative technological processes for processing of food and non-food products:

Nonthermal plasma (NTP) technology has demonstrated marked antimicrobial efficacies with good retention of important physical, chemical and sensory parameters for an array of products. The impact of NTP on specific bioactive compounds depends both on plasma properties and the food matrix. Induced changes are mainly associated with oxidative degradation and cleavage of double bonds in organic compounds.The effects are mainly time-dependent increases in the concentrations of chemical substances of treated products or increases in antioxidant activity.

Using honeycomb structured catalytic unit with internal nonthermal plasma discharge (INPD) and unique process control system, both developed by Amiagus group, modified coating itself has a surface of the monocrystals, grown under special conditions. The number and size of monocrystals are directly related to the number of discharges inside of the device. Moreover, the system can be used for indirect treatment of products with respect to microbiological and chemical safety of foods and other products.For in-package plasma treatment, the product is first packaged and sealed. The gas inside the package could be ambient air or a modified gas mixture. When this package or the gas within is exposed to a strong electric field for a short period of time, a breakdown of the gas occurs. This ionized state of the gas, the plasma, acts as the sterilizing agent and effects the microbial inactivation without affecting the packaging materials integrity. Also, homogenous nanocatalysts are being formed, that, in turn, determine formation of certain active catalytic elements in liquids. This phenomenon gives an opportunity to control the mechanisms of the chemical reactions and improve an activity of chemical elements, needed for the task selected.When the system is being placed on the package, the penetration depth of the strong electric field acts in ionization process of the air in the headspace, resulting in the formation of the reactive species. Irrespective of the configuration employed, the in-package plasma results in formation of species inside the sealed primary packaging, thereby eliminating the safety concerns associated with handling difficulties that would otherwise restrict its use.

Recent research and testing in collaboration with safety label manufacturers has led to the development of a unique product that combines protection against any counterfeiting providing the product with the required physico - chemical properties at the same time.
The aim of the technology is based on the usage of composite, consisting of natural mineral material (carrier), specially selected for the target product and a functional coating, as in some other systems developed by Amiagus Group. However, in this case the composite is being mixed with mass of viscosity controlled viscoelastic materials, controlling fraction and the amount of the composite, thereby forming an adhesive with composite filler.

Recent research and testing in collaboration with safety label manufacturers has led to the development of a unique product that combines protection against any counterfeiting providing the product with the required physico - chemical properties at the same time.
The aim of the technology is based on the usage of composite, consisting of natural mineral material (carrier), specially selected for the target product and a functional coating, as in some other systems developed by Amiagus Group. However, in this case the composite is being mixed with mass of viscosity controlled viscoelastic materials, controlling fraction and the amount of the composite, thereby forming an adhesive with composite filler.

Security label with several levels of security is being produced and an adhesive with composite filler is applied. After production process, unique specially modulated for such a product charge is being given to the composite, using special equipment, developed by Amiagus group. This charge is necessary for the functionality of functional coating while the natural mineral material acts as a charge accumulator for long – term storage. Even more, unique charge given can be measured using special equipment and this property provides a completely new feature - unique on a global scale security level for the final product.

The final product can be stored and sent to the customer, that makes it easy to transport even in large amounts. When the label is being sticked onto package or placed nearby the product containing at least 4 % of water, the unique charge of the composite is transferred to the product in a short period of time and the same process as for indirect NTPT takes effect, resulting in the formation of the reactive species (RS), needed for the task selected (physical, chemical, and sensory changes in food and non-food products).

Scientific review of physical, chemical, and sensory changes in food and non-food products based on the nonthermal plasma treatment (NTPT) process:

Elucidation of the mechanism is important for future approval of plasma as a food or other products processing aid. The impact of nonthermal plasma treatment (NTPT) on the functionality and stability of various compounds is a structure-dependent phenomenon which may be explained by the synergistic effects of the various active plasma reactive species (RS). A strong surface oxidation effect was proposed to have led to the addition of new carbonyl and carboxylic groups followed by heightened oxygen formation (Grzegorzewski, Michaela, Rohn, Kroh, & Schlueter, 2011b; Grzegorzewski, Rohn, Kroh, Geyer, & Schluter, 2010b). Further addition of functional groups such as hydroxyl groups in the aromatic rings of phenolic compounds was documented by Aadil, Zeng, Han, and Sun (2013). Comparably, the degradation of thermally treated model solutions of flavonoids (rutin and quercetin) is reported to be due to the presence of molecular oxygen (O2) and ROS such as O2 −, OH•. The final compounds formed were due to the shifting of some of the hydrogen atoms in the B- ring. Although the scavenging potentials of these compounds were reduced, they retained about 20% of their scavenging activity (Buchner et al., 2006; Patras, Brunton, O’Donnell, & Tiwari, 2010). Likewise, Makris and Rossiter (2002) have linked the degradation of phenolic compounds by plasma to that of a heat-induced oxidative cleavage path.

Effects on biomolecular modification using NTPT:

Effects on functional food components are also highly dependent on the plasma equipment and configuration (Muhammad, Liao, et al., 2018). The effects of CP could generate many changes in surface proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. Bahrami et al. (2016) found no significant change in total protein content, although there was a significant increase in high molecular weight proteins with increased power(from 40 to 90 W at 9 kHz for 120 s) on the RF surface barrier discharge CP. This was also observed by Takai et al. (2012) who CP (unknown source) treated (–3.5–5 kV at 13.9 kHz) lysozyme. A few possible explanations for increased molecular weight proteins have been the following: Increased protein carbonyl groups due to protein oxidation from the CP (Segat et al., 2015); unfolding of theScientific review of physical, chemical, and sensory changes in food and non-food products based on the nonthermal plasma treatment (NTPT) process:protein structure (due to SH bond breaking) exposed aromatic amino acids to sugar’s carbonyl groups, hence increasing the weight through glycosylation (Yu et al., 2020). Moreover, the secondary structures of proteins have been observed to be modified by CP (Muhammad, Xiang,
et al., 2018). After 5 min of DBD CP treatment (70 kV at 50 Hz), Misra et al. (2015) found a reduced amount of apparent α-sheets and increased α-turns and α-helices; however, apparent α-sheets appeared to increase with extended plasma exposure (from 5 to 10 min). This could explain why Surowsky et al. (2013) also found that the kINPen 09 DC CP jet treatments (65 kV at 1.1 MHz for 6 min) increased α-sheet content, although they found that it reduced α-helical content.It is likely that these changes are caused indirectly by changes in the primary structure and the amino acid composition. For example, Dong et al. (2017) observed an increase in free SH groups with DBD CP at 75 V (and 75W for 10 min). However, Segat et al. (2015) and Ji et al. (2018) observed a reduction in SH groups with DBD CP (at 75 kV and 50 Hz for 60 min, and 0–3 min of DBD at 35 V, respectively); this effect was found to increase with treatment time (Ji et al., 2018). Segat et al. (2015) also found that there were significantly more protein-based carbonyl groups after cold plasma treatment. Furthermore, Pal et al. (2016) found a statistically significant reduction in both basic and acidic amino acid contents in rice flour after 10 min of DBD CP treatment (70 kV at 50 Hz). The effect of which was greater with both increased time and power. The acidic and aromatic amino acid contents of some rice flours were also observed to increase with increasing power and exposure time (Pal et al., 2016). Takai et al (2012) found that the formation of HOO, O2–, and NO from 30 min of CP (of an undeclared source) treatment (–3 – +5 kV AC at 13.9 kHz) increased the molecular weight of lysozyme and reduced the apparent fluorescence of a tryptophan side chain, which suggested it could alter the chemistry of side chain amino acids. Furthermore, these changes have been attributed to an increase in the oxidation of proteins (Segat et al., 2015; Zhao et al., 2020). Zhou et al. (2020) observed an increase in C–O and C=O groups and a decrease in C–C and C–H groups on the surface of apples after surface barrier discharge treatment (5 kV at 9 kHz for 2 min). In other words, the total content of chemical substances can be the same before and after NTP treatment, however, some selected properties of such substances can be changed after treatment process.

In a similar study, Makris and Rossiter (2002) proposed a hydroxyl free radical oxidative degradation of flavonols (quercetin and morin) that formed low-molecular-weight phenolic compounds (Makris & Rossiter, 2002). It was claimed that both compounds have similar degradation pathways that depend on B-ring and 3- hydroxyl group substitutions (Grzegorzewski et al., 2009; Makris & Rossiter, 2002). Grzegorzewski and group speculated that flavonoids degraded much faster than phenolic acids during NTP exposure. Their assertion was based on the radical-scavenging potential of polyphenols, which can scavenge the plasma-generated RS. This has allowed phenolic compounds to resist the degradation to a greater extent than flavonoids (Grzegorzewski et al., 2011b).

Finally, apart from the direct effects caused by reactive species present in plasmas, an indirect mechanism of action has been also described. Thus, Yost and Joshi (2015) showed that hydroxyl radicals (OH∗) can be generated from H2O2 and superoxide radicals (O∗ 2−) in the presence oftransition metals such as iron or copper. Although OH∗ radicals can be produced by different routes, the Haber-Weiss reaction is the most habitual (Lemire Frontiers in Microbiology | www.frontiersin.org 5 April 2019 | Volume 10 | Article 622 López et al. Non-thermal Plasma for Food Preservation et al., 2013). This reaction consists in the transformation of the ferric cation to ferrous cation (Fe3+ + O−∗ 2 → Fe2+ + O2) by the superoxide radical. Afterwards, the ferrous cation reacts with H2O2 to produce Fe3+, hydroxyl anions and hydroxyl radicals, which also exert and antimicrobial activity. Nitric oxide (NO) can also react with oxygen or superoxide radicals to form nitrogen dioxide (NO2), peroxynitrites (ONOO− or ONO−2) and nitrous anhydride (N2O3) (Han et al., 2013), which all have a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, although they differ in reactivity, stability and biological activity (Fang, 2004).

Effects on biomolecular modification using NTPT:

Summing up the statements made in this overview and the technological description, it can be concluded, that the technologies and equipment, developed by Amiagus, based on NTPs and other methods, can affect production of the relevant chemical elements and / or their compounds can be used for:

• Contributing to the preservation of human and nature well – being through green technologies.
• Better understanding and integrating the effects of biomolecular modification to existing andinnovative projects.
• Processing food and non-food products, for example – different mixtures of tobacco to givethem appropriate chemical, physical and sensory properties.
• Reducing or preventing negative impact of smoking products on the human body and theenvironment.
• Making positive impact on substantially negative effects of products.

High-efficiency odor and heavy metal pollution neutralizer, operating using catalysis, adsorption, chemical oxidation, and low-temperature plasma discharge processes.

“The high-efficiency odor and heavy metal pollution neutralizer is a device that includes the processes of catalysis, adsorption, chemical oxidation, and low-temperature plasma discharge. The device can be installed in the engineering systems of buildings and used to neutralize odors and heavy metal pollution in the incoming air stream (public and residential buildings), as well as to neutralize air pollutants emitted from pollution sources in the outgoing air stream (water treatment tanks, animal husbandry complexes, meat or wood processing plants companies, car storage facilities). The efficiency of the device is ensured by applying advanced processes - several stages of low-temperature plasma processing together with catalytic elements. This product is sustainable, as several solutions are integrated in oneelement: processes requiring energy resources (plasma discharge) take place using functional coatings in a catalytic environment, thus minimizing energy, time, and material costs.” 

Unique Pool Water Treatment System

Removal of various contaminants and bacteria in any type of water (swimming pool water, drinking water, waste water etc.). During testing – a medium size swimming pool full of green algae water was cleaned in three days with this purification system - no hazardous chemicals used. See attachment: “Unique Pool Water Treatment System”.”