## 1 Introduction  
An increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables has led to an increased risk of foodborne illnesses that are associated with pathogens and toxic chemical residues [1, 2]. Pesticides are representative of chemical hazards and their use has increased for controlling diseases and pest insect infestation for increasing crop yields. However, pesticides may have toxic effects on humans who consume fresh produce [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Furthermore, pesticides do not always stay in the location where they were applied and move along in the environment and often contaminate water, air, and soil, even in remote areas. The toxicities of pesticides to organisms, including beneficial insects and non-target plants, can change the natural balance of the ecosystem by altering the environment to favor the pests [8]. In this study, four pesticides (pyraclostrobin, boscalid, fluidoxonil, and azoxystrobin) that are widely used during the growth of various vegetables and fruits were chosen for the degradation experiment [9; 10; 11; 12]. Pathogens, which are biological hazards, can easily contaminate fresh produce at any point in the food supply chain, leading to foodborne illness, outbreaks, and even death [1; 13]. There is a need for effective and non-toxic post-harvest decontamination interventions for the degradation of pesticide residues and microorganisms. Photolysis is one of the most important degradation mechanisms for pollutants such as pesticides. Photolytic methods are based on providing the high energy to chemical compounds in the form of photon [14]. Most pesticides show UV-Vis absorption bands at relatively short UV wavelengths. UV irradiation leads to the promotion of the pesticides to their excited singlet states, and such excited states can then undergo hemolysis, heterolysis, and/or photoionization [15]. However, sunlight reaching the earth's surface (mainly UVA, with varying amounts of UVB) only contains a very small amount of short wavelength UV radiation; therefore, the direct photolysis of pesticides by sunlight is generally expected to be limited. Thus, direct UV irradiation at short wavelength causes characteristic reaction such as bond scission, cyclization, and rearrangement, which are scarcely observed in hydrolysis and microbial degradation [14]. The intensity and wavelength of the UV radiation or the quantum yield of the compound to be eliminated are factors that affect the performance of the photodegradation process. As a source of UV radiation, mercury vapor lamps are usually used [16]. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have also been reported as effective post-harvest decontamination methods. AOPs refer to oxidation processes that involve the generation of hydroxyl radicals (OH-) and strong oxidants at sufficient concentrations. Hydroxyl radicals (OH-) can be produced through the applications of oxidizing agents (such as H\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{2}\) and O\({}_{3}\)), UV irradiation, ultrasound (also called microbubble), electric current, and catalysts (such as Fe\({}^{2+}\)) [17]. Hydroxyl radicals (OH-) are reactive oxidizing compounds with an oxidation potential of 2.80 eV, which is more reactive than both ozone (2.08 eV) and chlorine dioxide (1.36 eV). Furthermore, hydroxyl radicals (OH) have the advantage of no additional waste generation, no chemical toxicity, and no corrosiveness to equipment. However, the disadvantage of AOPs lies in their high cost due to the use of expensive reagents (H\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{2}\), for example), energy consumption (generation of O\({}_{3}\), for example), and unsatisfactory degradation efficiency (ultrasound alone, for example) [16]. Among AOPs methods, techniques that are based on UV irradiation have been widely studied. For example, photolytic/photocatalytic effects under different UV light sources, such as UVC and VUV, have been investigated [18; 19; 20; 21]. Under VUV irradiation at 185 nm, water is homolyzed into a hydrogen atom and hydroxyl radicals. Other strong oxidants, such as ozone and hydrogen peroxide, are formed simultaneously [22].