Carmen Bueno-Ferrer

TU Dublin | TU Dublin · School of Food Science and Environmental Health

Brochothrix thermosphacta is the predominant spoilage microorganism in meat and its control in processing environments is important to maintain meat product quality. Atmospheric cold plasma is of interest for control of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms in foods. This study ascertained the potential of dielectric barrier discharge atmospheric...

This work aims to analyze the effects of cold atmospheric air plasma treatment of antimicrobial chitosan film with different levels of thymol. Optical characterization of the dielectric barrier discharge showed the generation of reactive nitrogen and oxygen species by the system. A significant increase in the surface roughness was observed after co...

Food packaging is designed to contain and protect foods, to provide required information about the food and to make food handling convenient from distribution to consumer’s table. The primary functions of packaging are to achieve preservation and the safe delivery of food products until consumption (Han, 2014). Food packaging technology is continuo...

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma is a novel non-thermal food decontamination technology. The effects of DBD plasma on the surface topography, chemical composition and crystal structure, film hydrophilicity, water vapor permeability and oxygen permeability of chitosan films have been examined. DBD plasma treatment increased the surface roug...

The aim of this work was to analyze the compatibility of bovine gelatin film with novel in-package dielectric barrier discharge atmospheric air plasma decontamination technology. Cold plasma treatment increased the roughness and topography of the treated film surface. It also increased the O/C ratio of the film surface by increasing the concentrati...

Dielectric barrier discharge plasma treatment of two different types of phosphorescent oxygen sensors under different in-package gas mixture has been studied. Commercial Optech™-O2 platinum and microporous polypropylene (PP) membrane sensors impregnated with platinum benzoporphyrin (PtBP) dye were found effective for oxygen sensing when DBD plasma...

Atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge plasma is a novel non-thermal technology for food decontamination. The effects of dielectric barrier discharge plasma on the surface topography, thermal behavior, chemical composition and water vapor permeability of high amylose corn starch films have been examined. Plasma treatment significantly increased t...

Cold plasma has been used extensively for surface treatments of polymeric materials. However, the application of cold plasma for food decontamination has intrigued researchers only recently. In-package dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) atmospheric plasma is an innovative and novel approach for decontamination of foods. This study characterizes the...

Sodium caseinate films were physico-chemically characterized for the effects of atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma as function of applied voltage and treatment times. Surface roughness of plasma treated films at both 60 and 70 kV were found to be significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher than the control. Glass transition temperature of al...

Dielectric barrier discharge atmospheric plasma is a novel nonthermal technology for the food and packaging industry. The effects of dielectric barrier discharge plasma on the surface, structural, thermal, and moisture sorption properties of edible zein films have been examined. Plasma treatment increased the surface roughness and equillibrium mois...

The effects of dielectric barrier discharge plasma treatment on zein film containing thymol as an active ingredient were evaluated. The plasma discharge was optically characterized to identify the reactive species. A significant increase in the film roughness (p < 0.05) was observed due to the etching effect of DBD plasma, which was correlated with...

Cold plasma technology is an emerging, green process offering many potential applications for food packaging. While it was originally developed to increase the surface energy of polymers, enhancing adhesion and printability, it has recently emerged as a powerful tool for surface decontamination of both foodstuffs and food packaging materials. New t...

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) air plasma is a novel technique for in-package decontamination of food, but it has not been yet applied to the packaging material. Characterization of commercial polylactic acid (PLA) films was done after in-package DBD plasma treatment at different voltage and treatment time to evaluate its suitability as food pa...

Biobased thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) obtained from dimer acid-based polyols, 4,40-diphenyl- methane diisocyanate and 1,4-butanediol were synthesised by using a two-step prepolymer process. The effect of dimer acid-based polyols on the processing parameters was investigated. A full thermal, mechanical and thermo-mechanical characterisation of...

Bio-based TPUs from dimer acid-based polyols are synthesised by using a two-step prepolymer process including reactive processing. The effect of the polyol on the final chemical structures, morphologies and properties of bio-based TPUs is evaluated by different analytical techniques. It is observed that the percentage of hard segment (HS) distribut...

Epoxidized soybean oil (ESBO) is a vegetable oil widely used as plasticizer and/or stabilizer for poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) formulations in food contact materials, in particular in gaskets of lids for glass jars. ESBO shows some advantages, such as low toxicity to humans and biodegradable nature, compared to common additives for PVC, making very...

The use of phthalates in plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) formulations has been questioned by their potential toxicity and high migration to foodstuff. Phthalates can be replaced by other harmless and environmentally friendly plasticizers, such as epoxidized soybean oil (ESBO), which has been also proved an efficient stabilizer for PVC helpin...

Pure and Zr, La or Pr-doped cerium oxides were characterised by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N2 adsorption-desorption at −196 °C and X-ray diffraction (XRD). For crystal sizes calculation, the Scherrer and Williamson-Hall equations were compared, and the relationship between surface area and crystal size was critically discussed. It was...

A modification of the method of Castle et al. (J. Chromatogr. 1988: 437:274-280) for the analysis of epoxidized soybean oil (ESBO) is proposed to simplify the analysis and reduce the time and consumption of reagents. The proposed modifications, particularly the elimination of the internal standard, resulted in a simpler, faster and more economical...