title: Numerical solution of a microbial growth model applied to dynamic environments.
abstract: The Baranyi and Roberts model is one of the most frequently used microbial growth models. It has been successfully applied to numerous studies of various microorganisms in different food products. Under dynamic conditions, the model is implicitly formulated as a set of two coupled differential equations which could be numerically solved using the Runge-Kutta method. In this study, a simplified numerical solution of the coupled differential equations was derived and used to simulate microbial growth under dynamic conditions in Microsoft Excel. As expected, the results obtained were the same as those from solving the coupled differential equations using a MATLAB Solver. In addition, model parameters were accurately identified by fitting the numerical solution to simulated growth curves under dynamic (time-varying) temperature conditions using the Microsoft Excel Solver.
authors.affiliation: Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies, North Carolina A&T State University, The North Carolina Research Campus, 500 Laureate Way, Kannapolis, NC 28081, USA.
authors.forename: Si
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies, North Carolina A&T State University, The North Carolina Research Campus, 500 Laureate Way, Kannapolis, NC 28081, USA. Electronic address: gchen@ncat.edu.
authors.forename: Guibing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D015169:Colony Count, Microbial / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012984:Software; D013696:Temperature
keywords: Microsoft Excel; Parameter estimation; Simplified numerical solution; The Baranyi and Roberts model