Technical Abstract: Vegetable sprouts can be a vehicle for food borne illness and the seeds used for sprouts are considered the probable source of the pathogen contamination. Since naturally contaminated seeds have a very low pathogen level, most reports on the efficacy of sanitizing decontamination methods use artificially inoculated seeds. At this time no standardized procedure exists for artificially inoculating seeds with the bacteria pathogen. This study was conducted to compare 15 different published inoculation procedures as they impact the percent moisture of alfalfa seeds. The percent moisture after drying was similar for the various procedures, verifying that the inoculation method had no effect. Further investigations were conducted using white and UV light at 360 nm to examine the physical characteristics of different alfalfa varieties seed coats. Exposed cotyledon fluoresced under the UV light making for easier viewing of the wrinkled, broken and cracked alfalfa seed coats, which were observed for all varieties studied. The effects of wetting and drying on broken or cracked seed coats were photographed. During inoculation, the cracks or breaks in the seed coats became more pronounced and curled upwards away from the cotyledon, thus bacteria cells in the inocula could become trapped in the cracks or under the seed coat. Upon drying the seed coat did not return to the original observed condition. The condition of the seeds used for artificial inoculation would therefore be expected to impact the result of a decontamination procedure. Examination of seed lots using the UV light could potentially be used to remove the cracked and wrinkled seeds.