3. Results and discussion
3.1. UV-C inactivation kinetics of E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes on fruit surfaces
The average population of E. coli O157:H7 before UV-C treatment on apple, pear, strawberry and raspberry surfaceswas in the range of 6.0 to 6.7 log CFU/g. Upon exposure to UV-C light, a significant effect (p b 0.0001) was observed between treatments for each type of fruit (Fig. 1, Table 1).