ABSTRACT
This chapter examines mathematical models describing the effect of temperature on bacterial growth and also examines how the information used to predict the extent of microbial growth on various substrates. Bacterial growth is defined as the coordinated summation of a complex array of processes including chemical synthesis, assembly, polymerization, biosynthesis, fueling and transport, the consequence of which is the production of new cells. While different bacteria grow over a wide range of temperatures, growth of individual organisms is usually restricted to a range of approximately 40°C and arbitrary temperature categories have been suggested based on the minimum, optimum, and maximum temperatures for growth. Temperature function integration provides a summation of time/temperature history expressed as equivalent time at a specified reference temperature. The chapter assumes that the amount of spoilage resulting from the time a product spends at each temperature can be pooled to provide a composite result.
