Food items and plants are mostly affected by bacterial pathogens that results in spreading of infection among consumers of contaminated foods and also yield loss in agricultural crops respectively. An essential oil such as cedarwood oil extracted from Cedrus deodara has excellent insecticidal, pesticidal and antimicrobial activities. In the present study, surfactants Tween 20 and Span 80 were used for emulsifying cedarwood oil to produce an oil in water emulsion that was found to be stable for the observed period of 120 days. The emulsion was characterized extensively by zeta potential, electrophoretic mobility, conductivity, turbidity, microscopic and FTIR studies with favorable results. The activity of the oil and its emulsion was checked against the food and plant pathogens and good activity was observed against all organisms. © RJPT All right reserved.