Modelling the growth rate of Listeria monocytogenes with a multiplicative type model including interactions between environmental factors

Abstract

A multiplicative secondary model previously published to describe independently the effects of environmental factors on the growth rate of Listeria monocytogenes ( Augustin and Carlier, 2000) was improved by taking into account interactions between these environmental factors. The proposed model allowed to decrease the rate of fail-safe growth predicted from 13.5% to 12.1% and the rate of fail-dangerous no growth predicted from 16.1% to 7.1%.