2.1.3. Method #3
The third approach considers the prevalence (same definition as in method #2) and the expected number of bacteria per contami- nated unit (i.e., in food units containing 2: 1 bacteria) at each step of the food pathway. The expected number of bacteria in contami- nated units is a rational number 2:1 (e.g., 1.2 or 65.8; unit: cfu/food unit). For any given process defined by a given parameter, the prevalence is evaluated deterministically as the expected proba- bility that the food unit contains 2:1 bacteria. The expected number of bacteria per contaminated unit is evaluated deterministically. As an illustrative example, consider food units contaminated with prevalence Pj ¼ 10% and E[Nj] ¼ 6 cfu/100 g food unit at step j.
Bacterial growth of 3.2 log10 would lead to no change in prevalence
and an expected number of bacteria of E
[Njþ1] ¼ 6 x 10
3.2
¼ 9509.4 cfu in the 100 g contaminated units.
2 The expected value E[X] of random variable x is the weighted average of all possible values of x weighted by the probability that x assumes it.