3. Results
3.1. Growth kinetics of co-inoculated pathogenic and spoilage bacteria
on poultry
A total of 288 growth curves, representing 96 different combinations
of bacterial species, inoculum composition and type of decontaminant
(three replicateswere performed for each combination), were generated
and fitted to the modified Gompertz equation. Eight observations
for bacterial concentrations and pH values were taken from chicken
legs during the seven days of refrigerated storage. The R2 coefficients
obtained when fitting the experimental data (bacterial counts) to the
modified Gompertz equation were higher than 0.90. In more than 50%
of cases, the R2 values for the model fit were higher than 0.95.
Tables 1 to 3 summarise the average kinetic parameters estimated
from the fitted Gompertz equation for each bacterial species (data
from different inocula were combined). Average growth curves for
all pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms are shown in Fig. 1. The
comparative growth curves for co-inoculated pathogenic and spoilage
bacteria on dipped and untreated chicken legs during the course of refrigerated
storage, with each combination of bacteria used for inoculation
being considered separately, are shown in Figs. 2 and 3. It should