sterile ground pepper was used to determine the minimum water activity for growth of salmonella in ground black pepper and generationtime for water activities showing growth.Ground pepper was sterilized by placing ground pepper in flasks to a depth of no more then 1 inch and heat treating in a commercial autoclave (121,20 min). the water activities of the ground black pepper was measured before and after sterilization. The sterility of each autoclaved black pepper sample was confirmed by removing 1 g and soaking for 60 min 9 mL TSBYE. The pepper was then plated (without dilution) as described earlier. Following sterilization,ground black pepper was weighed into sterile 10 mL capped plastic tubes in 0.9 through 0.4 g quantities.