No significant differences were found on the reductions
on mould/yeasts populations (Fig. 2d) between the treatments
with 3000–18000 ppm of the chemical when seeds were
pressurised at 250–300 MPa. However, differences with the chemical
concentration were observed at lower pressures. The results
suggest that the combination of treatments, soaking the seeds with
18000 ppm calcium hypochlorite and further pressurisation at
250 MPa before sprouting seems to be the optimal for obtaining
sprouts with more than 5 log cfu/g reductions in all microbial
groups achieving studied, with the additional advantage of maintaining
a relatively high (about 80%) germination capability of
seeds subjected to these combined treatments. The results also
indicated the additive effect of pressure and chemical treatments
applied to seeds for improving microbial quality of developed
sprouts.