## 1 Introduction  
The food sector faces numerous challenges that are not always related to food production and processing. Climate and environmental changes are influencing the pace of economic development not only in Europe but also worldwide. Greenhouse gas emissions, global hunger, food insecurity, environmental sustainability, economic growth and targeted investments are key areas for action. The Farm to Fork strategy addresses the sustainable production, processing, distribution and consumption of food while reducing losses and waste. The Farm to Fork strategy is part of the European Green Plan, which aims to make the EU climate neutral by 2050 [1]. Food production is a chain of processes that harbours numerous hazards. Successful risk and hazard management begins immediately after harvesting and continues through to processing at the production site [2]. The food production process includes various stages, and each stage is important: from cleaning, processing, separation to packaging at the end [3]. Waste management in food production must not be neglected either [4]. The food sector must keep pace with the nutritional and consumer demands of a constantly growing population. The challenges facing the food sector, such as food safety and security [5, 6], minimal processing [7, 8], and consumer and regulatory acceptance [9, 10], are driving scientists to explore technologies that provide an alternative to traditional food processing technologies. When new technologies are introduced in food production, they must not only support sustainability and ensure global food safety but also be environmentally sound when it comes to protecting crops or food from spoil or other adverse effects. An effective technology should successfully minimise the safety risks associated with food microbiology while maintaining the quality characteristics of the product, with the common goal of extending shelf life [11]. Non-thermal processing technologies for food preservation appear as an alternative to conventional thermal processing, with better end product characteristics [12], nutritional value and food quality [13; 14]. Non-thermal technologies such as pulsed electric fields (PEF), high-pressure processing (HPPP), non-thermal plasma (NTP), cold plasma technology (CP), etc., play an important role in the modern food sector for several reasons. Processing with non-thermal technologies enables the preservation of nutritional and sensory properties. They can be used for a wide range of foods, are constantly innovated and follow marketing trends. Non-thermal technologies offer considerable advantages to the food sector compared to the thermal technologies that are also used. However, most non-thermal technologies are developed in scientific research laboratories that cannot compete with the broad industrial application of established thermal technologies. Therefore, direct comparisons in terms of production costs, environmental impact, energy consumption, economic justification and technological feasibility are difficult to draw. Optimisation of the process parameters of non-thermal technology is required to increase efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability [15]. Each non-thermal technology has a unique mechanism of action, and the choice of technology and parameters depends on the specifics of the food matrix and the desired results [16; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22]. An interdisciplinary approach to researching any non-thermal technology is required to overcome the limitations and challenges of industrial processing. In non-thermal plasma technology, only partially ionised plasma is used. Although the degree of ionisation is lower, it is still such that the system can be regarded as a plasma system. The cooling of the neutral atoms and ions dominates the energy transfer from the electrons, which keeps the plasma system at lower temperatures and allows it to be applied to heat-sensitive materials.