The results of these experiments show that methodologies
for the assessment of antimicrobials that use a
non-growing population of cells will give different
results from studies in which a growing population of
cells are used. Since bacterial populations on most
food products are growing, the use of static cell
populations for the assessment of antimicrobials for
food applications is of questionable value. We would
suggest that for purposes of screening antimicrobials
for use in food systems, methodologies that do not use
growth-restricting conditions be adopted.