Predictive microbiology primarily deals with the quantitative assessment of microbial responses at a macroscopic or microscopic level, but also involves the estimation of how likely an individual or population is to be exposed to a microbial hazard.
This book provides an overview of the major literature in the area of predictive microbiology, with a special focus on food. The authors tackle issues related to modeling approaches and their applications in both microbial spoilage and safety.
Food spoilage is presented through applications of best-before-date determination and commercial sterility. Food safety is presented through applications of risk-based safety management. The different modeling aspects are introduced through probabilistic and stochastic approaches, including model and data uncertainty, but also biological variability.