Correction: Nestel et al. Plasma-Treated Water Effect on Sporulating Bacillus cereus vs. Non-Sporulating Listeria monocytogenes Biofilm Cell Vitality. Appl. Microbiol. 2025, 5, 80

Text Correction

There was an error in the original publication [1]: “hydrogen peroxide (>196 mg/mL)”.

A correction has been made to “hydrogen peroxide (>196 µg/mL)” in Chemical Differences of PTW Between Pre-Treatment Times.

Table 1. Physicochemical properties of PTW and the respective p-values with prior pre-treatment level. * ND = non-detectable.

Mean p-Value (Wilcoxon Test, α = 0.05)	Pre-Treatment
	Tap Water	10 min PTW	60 min PTW	90 min PTW
pH	8.35	2.78 6.3 · 10−4	1.88 4.1 · 10−4	1.84 0.093
Conductivity (µS/cm)	794.6	1829.7 8.2 · 10−5	10,317.2 4.1 · 10−5	11,335.8 0.077
ORP (mV)	153	570 4.0 · 10−5	638 4.1 · 10−5	650 4.1 · 10−5
Nitrite (mg/L)	ND *	53.0 7.7 · 10−4	89.6 4.9 · 10−3	112.4 1.0
Nitrate (mg/L)	ND	468.8 3.1 · 10−4	2040.6 4.1 · 10−5	2428.0 0.019
Hydrogen peroxide (µg/mL)	ND	196.3 3.1 · 10−4	540.3 4.1 · 10−5	749.9 7.8 · 10−3

was also updated with the scientific notation and the “p” value was italicized.

A further correction has been made, the average cell proliferation for the controls for B. cereus in Section 3.2. The values were corrected to 4.44 · 10⁷, 4.28 · 10⁷, and 4.34 · 10⁷.

3.1. Chemical Differences of PTW Between Pre-Treatment Times

All chemical analyses for each pre-treatment time of PTW (10, 60, and 90 min) showed physicochemical differences from the BTW that it was made from. Compared to the original BTW, all PTW exhibited a decrease in pH (>5.5) and increase in conductivity (>1035 μS/cm), oxidation reduction potential (ORP) (>417 mV), nitrite (>53 mg/mL), nitrate (>468 mg/mL), and hydrogen peroxide (>196 µg/mL) concentration (Table 1). There were also significant differences in the same directions for all chemical analyses between the 10 min PTW and the 60/90 min PTW; however, the 60 min PTW and 90 min PTW did not show any significance from each other except for in nitrate concentration ($p=0.019$) and hydrogen peroxide ($p=7.8·{10}^{-3}$), with 90 min PTW being higher.

3.2. Optimal Pre-Treatment and Post-Treatment Time to Reduce Proliferation Activity of Biofilm Cells

When B. cereus and L. monocytogenes biofilms were exposed to 10 and 60 min pre-treated PTW for 1 min of post-treatment time, both species still exhibited substantial proliferation activity in comparison to the saline (control) and tap water controls and longer post-treatment times. Therefore, experimentation proceeded with post-treatment times of 5, 10, and 30 min. B. cereus did not exhibit significance between tap water and saline treatments (Table 2); thus, the average cell proliferation for the controls was approximately 4.44 · 10⁷, 4.28 · 10⁷, and 4.34 ∙ 10⁷ for 5, 10, and 30 min post-treatment, respectively (Figure 2). B. cereus biofilm cells treated with 10 min PTW showed no significant reduction in proliferation activity after 5 min (p = 0.02829) and 10 min (p = 0.02541) of post-treatment, and only slight reduction in proliferation after 30 min (p = 0.00695) of post-treatment. Alternatively, B. cereus biofilms treated with 60 and 90 min PTW showed significant reduction after 5, 10, and 30 min of post-treatment time, with the greatest reduction for 60 min PTW after 30 min (p = 4.11353 · 10⁻⁵) and for 90 min PTW after 10 min and 30 min (p = 4.11353 · 10⁻⁵).

The authors state that the scientific conclusions are unaffected. This correction was approved by the Academic Editor. The original publication has also been updated.