Growth curves (data not shown) were conducted for both mi-croorganisms at various growth conditions in order to determine the test settings and the corresponding incubation duration. Test settings were chosen as to obtain high cell numbers for the UV-C inactivation study, and cells were harvested in the stationary growth phase (except for one test setting of L. plantarum BFE 5092 done with cells grown to the exponential growth phase). To compare different growth temperatures E. coli DH5a was incubated at 10, 25, 37 and 45 C in Standard I broth (pH 7.5), while
L. plantarum BFE 5092 was grown in MRS broth (pH 6) at 20, 30 and 40 C. In order to investigate the pH of the incubation media on the