Conditions and routes of pet food contamination are not well
understood, and could include the intermediate product at
different water contents, and liquid or dry contamination vehicles,
such as water splashes, dust, or dry ingredients entering produc-
tion. In this study, Salmonella was inoculated onto the dry food
matrix suspended in a minimal amount of peptone water, in order
to achieve high initial cell concentrations, and keep the drying time
to reach the same moisture level as the finished product at bagging
to a minimum. In addition, Salmonella was grown in liquid BHI
medium before inoculation.