Microbial Inactivation Models for Thermal Processes

In many food products, the population of microorganisms present after initial manufacturing stages is too high. As such, an intervention treatment is required to reduce the microbial load of these products. Thermal treatments are still by far the most common methods for microbial inactivation. The appropriate use of these technologies is aided by using mathematical models that describe the effect of temperature and other conditions on microbial responses. These kinetic models are subcategorised as primary models that describe the evolution of the population with time and secondary models that describe the effect of the environmental conditions on the parameters of the primary models. This chapter offers a comprehensive discussion of primary and secondary models for thermal microbial inactivation.