## 1 Introduction  
Fresh food becomes more prevalent in the global market due to their nutritional benefits. However, fresh food has strict requirements for decontamination, which need to be effective in preservation of fresh food quality and extending shelf-life without causing unacceptable changes in nutritional or organoleptic properties of food. These requirements have spurred scientists to develop novel non-thermal methods to reduce microbial populations in fresh food [1]. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) is an emerging decontaminating technology. Under ambient pressure and temperature conditions, it generates energetic electrons that collide with gas molecules and result in dissociation, excitation and ionization of gas molecule [2]. NTP consists of not only partially ionized gases but also highly bio-reactive components including UV light, free radicals, and oxidative molecules. Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is one of the simplest ways for generating NTP. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of NTP on microorganisms on food polymer and medical utensil surfaces, and in liquids and gases [1, 3, 4]. For example, [PERSON] et al. [5]examined efficiency of NTP at 8 kV in reducing the _Escherichia coli_ type 1, _Saccharomyces cerevisiae_, _Gluconobacter liquefaciens_, and _Listeria monocytogenes_ Scott A on the surfaces of filter membranes. [PERSON] et al. [6] investigated the in-package inactivation efficacy of DBD-NTP on _Escherichia coli_ suspended in different media and the diffusion of reactive species into liquid media. [PERSON] et al. [7] reported the effects of DBD-NTP on _Pseudomonas_, _Campylobacter_, and _Salmonella_ in liquid media. A wide range of microorganisms, including spores, bacterial, fungi, virus, can be inactivated by NTP treatment, and has been reviewed by [PERSON] [8]. Technological parameters, such as input power, gas composition and treatment time, influence inactivation efficiency of plasma. However, food intrinsic properties will also affect the resistance of microorganisms towards plasma treatment [2]. Food intrinsic factors such as osmolarity and pH also affect the efficacy of plasma treatment, while lipid and protein content and antioxidant state can diminish the activity of plasma reactive species [9]. [PERSON] et al. reported that _S. Enteritidis_ cells were more susceptible treated by plasma at pH 5 as compared to pH 7 [10]. _S. typhimurium_ and _Listeria monocytogenes_ cells were more resistant towards plasma treatment at salt concentration 0% (\(w/v\)) compared to 6% (\(w/v\)) [11]. In addition, these observation also suggest the complexity of NTP treatment effects on microbes and the importance of further investigation of microbial survival curves to elucidate the advantages and limitations of this technology [12]. In food, inactivation kinetics analysis is a useful tool to describe microbial survival curves, since quantitative surviving of microorganisms is essential to maintain food quality [13]. Sublethal injury is a consequence of exposure to a chemical and/or physical antimicrobial process. In sublethal injury, microbes are damaged but not killed by the antimicrobial treatment [14]. The significance of the sublethal injury in foods is twofold and somewhat contradictory. Sublethal injury causes false negative results, since injured cells do not develop in selective media and therefore escape detection. But the potential for hazard is still present because injured cells are still capable of repairing themselves and producing toxins [14]. In order to estimate sublethal injury after an antimicrobial treatment, the difference in plate counts between nonselective media, which support cell recovery and represent both uninjured and injured cells, and the corresponding selective media, to which injured cells become sensitive, is used to indicate a proportion or percentage of sublethal injury in the entire microbial population [14]. To our knowledge, very little literature is available regarding the sublethal injury of microbes by DBD-NTP treatments.