The total time frominoculation of the samples to commencement of
microbial analyses was 18–20 h. The samples were prepared and inoculated
for 2 h the day before. After 8 h, those were shipped and irradiated
for 9 h the following day. Microbial survival over this time was
monitored, with no significant (p N 0.05) reduction occurring in the
control samples.