The objective of this studywas to quantify the effect ofwater activity, pH and storage temperature on the growth
of Eurotium repens, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium corylophilum, isolated from spoiled bakery products. Moreover,
the behaviors of these threemold specieswere compared to assesswhether a generalmodeling framework
may be set and re-used in future research on bakery spoilage molds. The mold growth was modeled by building
two distinct Gamma-type secondary models: one on the lag time for growth and another one on the radial
growth rate. A set of 428 experimental growth curves was generated. The effect of temperature (15–35 °C),
water activity (0.80–0.98) and pH (3–7) was assessed. Results showed that it was not possible to apply the
same set of secondary model equations to the three mold species given that the growth rate varied significantly
with the factors pH andwater activity. In contrast, the temperature effect on both growth rate and lag time of the
three mold species was described by the same equation. The equation structure and model parameter values of
the Gamma modelswere also compared permold species to assesswhether a relationship between lag time and
growth rate existed. Therewas no correlation between the two growth responses for E. repens, but a slight one for
A. niger and P. corylophilum. These findings will help in determining bakery product shelf-life and guiding future
work in the predictive mycology field.