Exploring the impact of atmospheric cold plasma technology on plant-based milk analogues and their proteins: A review

Plant-based milk analogues are suitable substitutes for animal milk, more environmentally friendly, and sustainable. The microbiological stability, quality, anti-nutritional elements, and techno-functional properties of plant analogues and their proteins need to be considered. The type and concentration of reactive plasma species are influenced by parameters such as frequency, voltage, electrode spacing, treatment time, and gas composition. These factors regulate the efficacy of cold plasma in microbial disinfection and enzyme inactivation. The results indicate that cold plasma enhances the solubility, emulsifying properties, hydrophilicity, and foaming characteristics of plant-based analogues and proteins. In this study, the most potential sources of cold plasma and their impact on the functional characteristics of plant milk and proteins are thoroughly discussed. The work presents current insights into cold plasma for plant-based milk analogues and highlights their prospective applications, recent research, and developments in the field. • Cold plasma uses ionized gas to inactivate microorganisms and extend shelf life. • Cold plasma enhances the solubility and emulsifying properties of milk analogues. • High voltage and long-duration treatments have detrimental effect on food quality. • Optimizing cold plasma parameters reduces lipid oxidation and protein aggregation.