Pandemic COVID-19 warned the importance of preparing the immune system to prevent diseases. Therefore, consuming fresh fruits and vegetables is essential for a healthy and balanced diet due to their diverse compositions of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and bioactive compounds. However, these fresh products grew close to manure and irrigation water and are harvested with equipment or by hand, representing a high risk of microbial, physical, and chemical contamination. The handling of fruits and vegetables exposed them to various wet surfaces of equipment and utensils, an ideal environment for biofilm formation and a potential risk for microbial contamination and foodborne illnesses. In this sense, this review presents an overview of the main problems associated with microbial contamination and the several chemicals, physical, and biological disinfection methods concerning their ability to avoid food contamination. This work has discussed using chemical products such as chlorine compounds, peroxyacetic acid, and quaternary ammonium compounds. Moreover, newer techniques including ozone, electrolyzed water, ultraviolet light, ultrasound, high hydrostatic pressure, cold plasma technology, and microbial surfactants have also been illustrated here. Finally, future trends in disinfection with a sustainable approach such as combined methods were also described. Therefore, the fruit and vegetable industries can be informed about their main microbial risks to establish optimal and efficient procedures to ensure food safety.

大流行的 COVID-19 警告了让免疫系统做好预防疾病准备的重要性。因此，食用新鲜水果和蔬菜对于健康均衡的饮食至关重要，因为它们含有多种维生素、矿物质、纤维和生物活性化合物。然而，这些新鲜产品生长在粪便和灌溉水附近，并通过设备或手工收获，存在很高的微生物、物理和化学污染风险。水果和蔬菜的处理使它们暴露于设备和器具的各种潮湿表面，这是生物膜形成的理想环境，并且存在微生物污染和食源性疾病的潜在风险。从这个意义上说，本综述概述了与微生物污染相关的主要问题以及与避免食品污染的能力相关的几种化学、物理和生物消毒方法。这项工作讨论了氯化合物、过氧乙酸和季铵化合物等化学产品的使用。此外，这里还介绍了臭氧、电解水、紫外线、超声波、高静水压、冷等离子体技术和微生物表面活性剂等新技术。最后，还描述了采用可持续方法（例如组合方法）进行消毒的未来趋势。因此，水果和蔬菜行业可以了解其主要微生物风险，以建立最佳且有效的程序来确保食品安全。