Simulation of Microbial Growth in Food Using Its Estimated Temperature

Abstract

Recently we developed a method that estimates the temperatures of a cylindrical sausage exposed at various temperature patterns (FSTR 14:111-116, 2008); the method was based on the heat conduction law and temperature difference between a standard point and points on the surface of the food as the boundary conditions. In this study, we confirmed that the method also successfully estimates the temperature of a hamburger patty at various patterns of temperature. Then, we simulated bacterial growth in the food at a dynamic temperature using a combination of our temperature estimation method and our growth model. This combined simulation can be used as an alert system for microbial growth in foods for the purpose of food safety.