Modifying Bio-Ingredients within an Integrated Food Printer using an In-Situ Corona Discharge Non-Thermal-Plasma Approach: A Step Toward Creating Innovative Methods for Characterizing Engineered Food Materials and Biomedicine

The present research is focused on pioneering new in-situ non-thermal plasma treatment techniques for 3D printed bio-ingredients based on starch. Thanks to its natural abundance and cost-effectiveness, starch emerges as a highly pertinent raw material for substituting synthetic polymers in various applications. It enjoys a reputation for being non-toxic, biocompatible, and biodegradable, making it a secure choice for applications in the biomedical, food, and packaging sectors. Utilization of starch as a foundation for stabilizing, integrating, or releasing bioactive substances with applications as bioactive compounds incorporated within starch matrices in the pharmaceutical industry, with a particular emphasis on their use in orally disintegrating films. These methods aim to customize the attributes of the starch granule-surface proteins (SGSP). The study also involves assessing continuous and discontinuous gluten networks formed due to the interaction of SGSPs with quasi-static corona discharge plasma conditions. Additionally, the research investigates the bonding characteristics of starch-based bio-ingredients based on plasma current-voltage behavior. The surface of the cured starch-based samples will undergo profiling for characterization. The binding properties, gluten network formation, and porosity characteristics will be examined through electron microscopy for microstructural evaluation. Furthermore, advanced hybrid machine learning models will be developed in conjunction with analytical techniques and empirical datasets to create strategies for modifying both the surface and bulk properties of these materials.