Comparison of the experimentally obtained growth model of Listeria monocytogenes on cucumber and zucchini with existing model generated by ComBase Predictor

Abstract

The quality and microbiological safety of produced and stored food is a challenge for its producers and official control. Numerous examples have shown how important it is for them to have access to precise data about the growth time and rate of microorganisms in stored products, especially in the case of those which are the etiology of digestive system diseases such as Listeria monocytogenes. It is one of the most virulent foodborne pathogens, showing a mortality rate of approximately 20–30 %, which is the highest among food microbiota. In order to determine the microbial growth kinetics in time on food matrices, so-called growth modeling is used. It allows to determine the growth of microorganisms in time and depending on the temperature, pH, water activity (aw), or content of acids. In this paper, we verified the growth model of Listeria monocytogenes on cucumber and zucchini with an existing model in the ComBase Predictor.