Microbial decontamination is a major concern in the food industry. Non-thermal physical technologies are increasingly used. Pulsed Light used to decontaminate surfaces and clear liquids is one of these new technologies. Pulsed Light uses intense flashes of white light rich in UV, delivered in less than one millisecond. Most of treatments are characterised in the literature using parameters which are specific to the equipment. The aim of this study was firstly to characterise the PL treatment in expressing a log reduction as a function of the dose received by the microorganism. The pulsed light pilot of the CLARANOR company allowed a high decontamination of B. subtilis spores and other sporulating bacterial species, with more than 5 log reductions at fluences lower than 1.5 J/cm², obtained in only one flash. The development of a spray inoculation method was made to evaluate the decontamination efficiency on different surfaces, including hydrophobic surfaces, with a monolayer inoculation. The Pulsed light efficiency on inert surfaces such as polystyrene lead to high decontaminations including B. subtilis and A. niger spores, with more than 4 log reductions using fluences lower than 1 J/cm² in both cases. The influence of the physical factors of the light showed that UV wavelengths are essential for the decontamination, but the efficiency is not totally explained by the action of the UV-C dose. The efficiency of pulsed light allowed to study sugar syrup decontamination, in view of industrial application. Three log reductions of A. acidoterrestris spores were obtained in 10 mm thickness sugar syrup, using a flow-through system
