For cottage cheese, the effect of the added LAB culture must be regarded as an input parameter equal to e.g.
pH and temperature when modelling growth response of L. monocytogenes in fermented dairy products. The application of reference growth rates (μref) refitted to product data, and the empirical Jameson term to describe the inter-bacterial interaction, resulted in realistic predictions of L. monocytogenes growth and maximum
population densities.
The used methodology can,most likely, be successfully applied to other fermented dairy products in order to predict
the simultaneous growth of LAB from added cultures and
L. monocytogenes or other human pathogens. Since a range of different
LAB cultures are applied in the dairy industry, it is essential to define
a manageable methodology for the modelling of the important
inter-bacterial interactions