Database of Microbial Death and Its Application for Thermal Process

Abstract

For the construction of functional predictive models describing thermal death behaviors of foodborne spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms in foods, abundant thermal death data should be collected. We have been carrying out the build-up of thermal death database by taking two approaches. One is Thermokill Database R, which is a collection of data taken from research papers published in academic journals so far. The first version of this database, TKDB9100, was just completed and consisted of 3, 436 records containing approximately 7, 200 D values and 1, 450 Z values, which were published from 1991 to 2000. Based upon information from TKDB9100, we are further constructing a data library containing a variety of data distribution and interrelationships among many parameters and conditions. Another database is Thermokill Database E, which is a database obtained by experiments performed under defined conditions. Some of the examples of such information from these two databases are demonstrated. Finally, we describe the prospect of use of those in thermal processing of foods.