Response surface methodology was used to explore the sterilization efficiency of areca catechu by working frequency, voltage, time and oxygen ratio of high voltage electric field. The results showed that within a certain range, the sterilization rate increased significantly with the increase of working frequency, voltage and time (P＜0.05). When the frequency was higher than 100 Hz and the time exceeded 150 s, the sterilization rate did not change significantly (P＞0.05). Regression analysis results showed that the increase of frequency was positively correlated with the changes of voltage and time critical values (R²=1), indicating that frequency, voltage and time had obvious interaction on areca catechu sterilization. The best sterilization conditions were treatment frequency 110 Hz, treatment voltage 70.5 kV, oxygen ratio 40%, treatment time 180 s, sterilization rate 97.20%, which is close to the predicted sterilization rate 97.32%. There was no obvious change in arecoline content, indicating that high voltage electric field and cold plasma have significant sterilization effect on areca catechu packaged products and have no significant influence on product quality.