cheese were generally acceptable (Table 5, Fig. 5) but in some cases
higher RLT values for LAB provided more appropriate simulations of
L. monocytogenes growth (Fig. 5d and g). It therefore seems interesting,
in future studies, to evaluate lag time distributions for both LAB and
L. monocytogenes in combination with stochastic modelling. Stochastic
lag time models have been studied for single species including
L. monocytogenes (Couvert et al., 2010; Tenenhaus-Aziza et al., 2014)
but remain little studied for more complex predictive models including
microbial interaction (Delignette-Muller et al., 2006). No lag phase was
included in the developed L.monocytogenes model (see Section 2.4) and
the present study takes a worst case approach to growth prediction of
the pathogen.
The empirica