## 1 Introduction  
Safety is one of the main challenges the food industry is facing. Foodborne diseases with a bacterial origin, including _Salmonella_, _Campylobacter_, _Enterrohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli_, _Listeria_, and _Vibrio cholera_, have an important socioeconomic impact. According to the World Health Organization (2015), it is estimated that 600 million cases and 420,000 deaths are caused by unsafe food [1]. Foodborne disease may cause severe symptoms and can be life-threatening if not treated properly. In particular, _L. monocytogenes_ and _Salmonella_ are foodborne pathogens of great importance due to their high prevalence and fatality rates. _Salmonellosis_ caused by \(S\). Typhimurium was reported to have a high prevalence of 21.2 per 100,000 people and a fatality rate of 0.24%, whereas Listeriosis, caused mainly by _L. monocytogenes_, has a lower prevalence (0.46/100,000 people) but a high fatality rate of 17.7% [2]. One of the common routes of food contamination is the direct contact of foodstuff with contaminated food-processing surfaces. It has been demonstrated that conventional procedures for disinfection and sanitization are not always enough to eliminate foodborne pathogens from processing surfaces, especially when biofilms are allowed to form [3; 4; 5; 6]. Cross-contamination represents an important food safety issue; therefore, the food industry is looking for novel methods that can be incorporated into automated food-processing environments to tackle it. Different novel methods are being tested for food contact surface decontamination, such as UV light, dry ice cleaning, ultrasound, and ozone, each one with its own advantages and limitations [7; 8]. Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a non-thermal decontamination technology suitable for treating material or foodstuffs that are sensitive to heat and other disinfection methods [9]. CAP is considered the fourth state of matter and can be generated by applying an electric field to air, nitrogen, or other working gases. The air molecules are then excited, and reactive species from oxygen and nitrogen (RONS) with antibacterial activity are generated, including NO, NO\({}_{2}\), CO, CO\({}_{2}\), H\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{2}\), and O\({}_{3}\)[10]. RONS act independently or in synergy through different mechanisms when in contact with the cell, including oxidative damage to the membrane, structural proteins, and DNA. Altogether, these mechanisms lead to cell-membrane disruption and ultimately to cell inactivation [11; 12]. Different cold plasma technology sources have been studied for the inactivation capacity against foodborne pathogens, including dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), corona discharges, plasma jet (CDP)), and glow discharge [13]. These technologies have been applied in the food industry for disinfection of processing equipment, foodstuff, and packaging materials; for instance, disinfection of milking machines [14], a DBD device for the sterilization of post-packaging ready-to-eat food [15], and grain for food and seed-purposed disinfection by a negative high-voltage corona discharge [16]. Also, DBD systems fed with different gases have been studied against spore-forming bacteria on wheat [17], and against _Salmonella_, _E. coli_, and _L. monocytogenes_, on glass slides, in-shell pecan, and on cherry tomato surfaces [18], with promising results. CAP has also been tested for its ability to disinfect stainless steel, which provided that it is the most used material on the surfaces of food industry equipment and appliances. For instance, a custom-made high-voltage generator cold plasma device effectively reduced _L. monocytogenes_ and _Salmonella_ on stainless steel [3], and a high radio frequency CAP showed antimicrobial activity against _E. coli_ K12 on stainless steel and polyethylene [19]. In general, the reductions reported fall within the range of 1 to 5 log depending on different factors such as the time of treatment, input voltage, frequency, type of plasma source, environmental humidity, working gas, and distance from the source [3; 20].