A PREDICTIVE MODEL FOR HIGH-PRESSURE CARBON DIOXIDE INACTIVATION OF MICROORGANISMS

The Weibull model, which is commonly used for thermal inactivation of microorganisms in literature, was used to describe microbial inactivation by high-pressure carbon dioxide (HPCD). The number of parameters of the model was reduced from two to one in order to avoid interrelationship of these parameters with a slight loss of goodness-of-fit. A second-order polynomial function fulfilling a number of constraints was proposed for the secondary modeling of the time-constant parameter of the reduced Weibull model. This function consists of both pressure and temperature and therefore can be used for HPCD treatments.