However, complete removal of microbial load in juice sam- ples were not observed in this study for UV-C exposure for 15, 30 and 60 min. According to Koutchma et al. (2004), UV-C pen- etration largely depends on the presence of dissolved organic solutes (suspended solids) and coloured compounds which act as barrier, thus exhibiting UV-C attenuation effects. Combi- nation of UV-C with other non-thermal processing method in a hurdle sequence can improve the rate of sterilization, as it has a synergistic effect (Walkling-Ribeiro et al., 2008). Results showed thermal pasteurization inactivated 100% aer- obic bacteria, coliform, yeast and mould in juice sample. High temperature may damage organic molecules (nucleic acids and proteins) required for the proper functioning of microbial cells, thus causing cellular death. Correspondingly, microbial load were reduced to below detection limit in thermally pas- teurized blended orange and carrot juice, as reported by Rivas et al. (2006).