الفهرس 
introductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 116 |  |  |
| | | from | 116 | | |
Abstract
Background: Increasing living standards and improvement of purchase empowerment has led to consume packed and ready made fruits and vegetables. Also awareness of the health properties of fresh fruits and vegetables in preventing many cancers and cardiovascular dysfunction and their high nutritional value lead to increase of this demands. from the other side the expansion of urbanization and modern life, and the lack of enough time to supply personally the necessary daily fruits and vegetables, could be extra reasons for these increasing demands over the past three decades. But at the same time, the prevalence of food-borne diseases associated with fresh vegetables and also abuse of fertilizers and pesticides should be noticed properly. Scope and approach: In this review article, the main ways of contamination of fruits and vegetables with pathogens has been reviewed. Also the major methods of prevention of contamination in all parts of the food chain, and using various disinfectants such as chemical and radiation preservatives to reduce microbial load, edible coatings, bacteriocins, irradiation, Gamma-ray, UV-C, high hydrostatic pressure, Ultrasonic, acid electrolyzed water, Ozone, Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) and Cold Plasma in the microbial safety of fruits and vegetables have been stated. Key findings and conclusions: Since fruits and vegetables are very important in the nutrition and health of individuals, pre- and post-harvest contaminants play a very important role in the safety of fruits and vegetables. The choose of various methods for having the highest levels of the microbiological safety of fruits and vegetables, according to initial microbial load, type of fruits and vegetables, size of products and type of infrastructures is completely different and should be applied cautiously.