Statistical evaluation of mathematical models for Salmonella typhimurium growth

• Main Authors: Neide K.S. Shinohara, Fernanda Freitas, Edleide Pires, Samara Andrade, José Lima Filho, Paulo Sousa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco 2017-12-01
• Series: Revista Geama
• Online Access: http://www.journals.ufrpe.br/index.php/geama/article/view/1757

Food illness is a serious health threat and has significant economic consequences for people in both the developing and developed world. Salmonella genus is one of the most common pathogens and a major cause of foodborne illness in humans worldwide. Nowadays, the application of mathematical models and functions to describe the microorganism growth kinetics provides a new behavioral vision of the interaction between microorganisms and the environment. Lately the studies on the subject have been gathering interest in the elaboration and application of mathematical modeling and equations over the last years to be used in biotechnological and industrial process, therefore being a most useful tool, with the intent of reducing time and expenses associated with the conventional tests. The purpose of the present study was to compare the Baranyi and Roberts (1994) model with quadratic function generated from data experimentally obtained of the Salmonella typhimurium growth in vitro. It was observed that the quadratic function had a better fitting to describe the kinetics growth of Salmonella typhimurium, this function being a low cost, efficient and easily applied tool.