The preservative potential of naturally occurring compounds
was studied as an alternative to reduce the use of artificial chemicals.
Non-inhibitory doses are recommended to reduce their
impact on the organoleptic characteristics of foods. Mathematical
models are appropriate tools to evaluate the effectiveness of natural
antimicrobials at those non-inhibitory doses and under changing
environmental conditions. The results obtained demonstrate
that the addition of carvacrol at concentrations higher than 0.20
and 0.50 lL/mL could inhibit the visible growth of E. coli K12 and
L. innocua, respectively, in foods kept at 15 C. Under these conditions,
lower carvacrol doses (0.15 lL/mL in the case of E. coli K12
and 0.25 lL/mL in the case of L. innocua) doubled the time that
both microorganisms needed to start growing and decreased the
maximum growth rate reached in the log phase. Further studies
are needed to evaluate its effect on the growth of these bacteria
in food matrices. Carvacrol could be used as a natural preservative
at concentrations that allow the production of safe foodstuffs when
mild preservation technologies are used to meet consumer
preference