## 1 Introduction  
The non-thermal technique is relatively fruitful for elongating fresh foods' shelf life. Nevertheless, its potentiality of adversely influencing sensory attributes has been highlighted [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Several non-thermal technologies for the treatment of food crops have come to emerge over the last few decades. This technology included irradiations (pulsed ultraviolet, gamma, and X-ray) pulsed electric field, pulsed electromagnetic field, cold plasma, ultra-sonication, microwave, supercritical technology, high-pressure processing, etc. [8, 9, 10, 11]. In the classification of surface treatment, microwave surface treatment can be considered as either a thermal or non-thermal surface treatment depending on the intensity used [12, 13]. It is reported that the irradiation technology is of high energy. Therefore, alongside its desirable effects, it is expected to induce undesirable alterations by interacting with different structures as well as chemical constituents of the potato tubers [14]. Among other different crop treatment techniques, such as gamma irradiation and fumigation [15], the UV-C radiation technique is one of the non-thermal technologies that is dominantly used for the surface disinfection and decontamination of crops and fruits and is by far regarded as effective [16]. UV-C radiation, emitted at wavelengths of 200-280 nm along with UV-A (320-400 nm) and UV-B (280-320 nm), is reported to be retained by the ozone layer. The different regions of UV radiation are shown in Figure 1[17, 18, 19]. UV-C radiation, because of its high absorption level by the ozone layer, does not penetrate the earth in any appreciable amount. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the energy of the photon as depicted from the Planck relation. This short wavelength carries a higher pocket of energy which is capable of destroying microorganisms by damaging the microbial DNA, causing cross-linking between neighboring thiamine and cytosine in the same DNA strand [20; 21]. Even if this surface treatment has consent from Food and Drug Administration and other institutes as recognized disinfect technology [22; 23], it is important to study its impact on the characteristics of the crop. Numerous studies have already been focused on the bactericidal and fungicidal capacity of UV-C treatment in plant products, but information on product quality attributes is scanty. Limited studies have been reporting that short wave UV-C has a pronounced effect on plants' physiology and structure. It was reported that there induces a significant structural damaging effect on the plant cell, most specifically on the chloroplasts, mitochondria, and membranes [24; 25]. The change in cellular structure is directly related to the overall alteration of the mechanical properties of the plant. This correlation is well described by a previous study conducted on the potato tuber cell structural parameters having a significant effect on the overall mechanical characteristics such as strength and modulus of elasticity [26]. Moreover, in the other study on UV-C exposed strawberries, cellular structural changes in relation to the physical properties of the fruit were studied stating that delayed softening and higher firmness are caused by changes in the activity of enzymes and proteins responsible for cell wall disassembly [27]. It was clearly stated that the change in mechanical characteristics of food derived from plants arises from three structural factors at the cellular level are turgor, cell wall rigidity, and cell-cell adhesion [28; 29]. The mechanical characteristics of crops play a prominent role in deciding the acceptability in the chains of target users, such as food processing industries and people. Since plants are biological materials with complex structures that have high exposure to mechanical change, these changes can lead to irreversible changes in structure and other crop characteristics where these changes are reported to be invisible, having inner deformations [26].