Spore-forming bacteria are implicated in cases of food spoilage or food poisoning. In their sporulated form, they are resistant to physical and chemical treatments applied in the food industry and can persist throughout the food chain. The sporulation leads to an increase in the concentration of resistant forms in final products or food processing equipment. In order to identify sporulation environments in the food industry, it is necessary to be able to predict bacterial sporulation according to environmental factors. As sporulation occurs after bacterial growth, a kinetic model of growth-sporulation was used to describe the evolution of vegetative cells and spores through time. The effects of temperature, pH and water activity on the growth and the sporulation abilities of Bacillus subtilis BSB1 were modelled. The values of the growth boundaries were used as inputs to predict these effects. The good description of the sporulation kinetics by growth parameters suggests that the impact of the studied environmental factors is the same on both physiological process. Suboptimal conditions for growth delay the appearance of the first spores, and spores appear more synchronously in suboptimal conditions for growth. The developed model was also applicable to describe the growth and sporulation curves in changing temperature and pH conditions over time.

在食物变质或食物中毒的情况下，会形成孢子。它们呈孢子状，可抵抗食品工业中进行的物理和化学处理，并且可以在整个食物链中持续存在。孢子形成导致最终产品或食品加工设备中抗性形式的浓度增加。为了识别食品工业中的孢子形成环境，必须能够根据环境因素预测细菌的孢子形成。由于细菌生长后发生孢子形成，因此使用生长-孢子形成的动力学模型来描述营养细胞和孢子随时间的演变。温度，pH和水分活度对枯草芽孢杆菌生长和芽孢形成能力的影响BSB1已建模。生长边界的值用作预测这些影响的输入。通过生长参数对孢子形成动力学的良好描述表明，研究环境因素对两个生理过程的影响是相同的。亚最佳生长条件延迟了第一孢子的出现，并且在亚最佳生长条件下孢子的出现更加同步。所开发的模型还可用于描述随着时间变化的温度和pH条件下的生长和孢子形成曲线。