3.3.2. TBARS values
To investigate the effect of the flexible thin-layer DBD-plasma
exposure on the lipid oxidation of meat samples, TBARS values of
the samples were measured. The TBARS values of DBD-plasmatreated
pork and beef samples increased slightly when the treatment
timewas increased (Fig. 3). However, compared with the lipid
oxidation in untreated and other treated samples after one day of
treatment, the lipid oxidation in meat samples was significantly
affected (P < 0.05) by DBD-plasma treatment only after exposure to
the plasma for 10 min. Furthermore, the TBARS values of beef-loin
samples were slightly higher than those of pork-butt samples. This
might be attributed to the variations in fat content and fatty-acid
composition of the two meat types. By contrast, the TBARS value
of APP-treated baconwas lower than that of untreated bacon at Day
0, but these values increased after 7 days of storage (Kim et al.,
2011). The observed increase in TBARS values of plasma-treated
samples can be attributed to free radicalsdthe precursors of lipid
hydroperoxides produced during plasma treatmentdthat trigger
lipid oxidation (Kim et al., 2013). Consequently, lipid-oxidation
byproducts such as hexanal and malondialdehyde are produced
(Liu et al., 2008). The current data suggest that the flexible thinlayer
DBD-plasma treatment minimally affected lipid oxidation in
pork butt and beef loin up to a treatment time of 7.5 min when
measured one day after plasma treatment. However, further investigations
are needed to find out the effect of newly developed