Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium was grown at salt concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 7.5% in minimal medium with and without added osmoprotectant and in a rich medium. In minimal medium, the cells showed an initial decline period, and consequently the definition of the lag time of the resultant log count curve was revised. The model of Baranyi and Roberts (Int. J. Food Microbiol. 23:277-294, 1994) was modified to take into account the initial decline period, based on the assumption that the log count curve of the total population was the sum of a dying and a surviving-then-growing subpopulation. The lag time was defined as the lag of the surviving subpopulation. It was modeled by means of a parameter quantifying the biochemical work the surviving cells carry out during this phase, the "work to be done." The logarithms of the maximum specific growth rates as a function of the water activity in the three media differed only by additive constants, which gave a theoretical basis for bias factors characterizing the relationships between different media. Models for the lag and the "work to be done" as a function of the water activity showed similar properties, but in rich medium above 5% salt concentrations, the data showed a maximum for this work. An accurate description of the lag time is important to avoid food wastage, which is an issue of increasing significance in the food industry, while maintaining food safety standards.Salmonella enterica causes severe enteritis in both humans and animals (19,25). Human infection usually results from eating contaminated food, such as poultry, milk, beef, eggs, pork, and seafood (13); consequently, monitoring and control of contamination by Salmonella are necessary and important in the food industry.One way of controlling Salmonella in food is to add salt to decrease the water activity and inhibit microbial growth. However, the effect of salt highly depends on the presence of osmoprotectants, which have been shown to affect the growth rate (7). The immediate response of cells to osmotic stress is to accumulate K ϩ and glutamine to maintain a viable turgor of the cell. These potentially harmful substrates are then replaced by compatible solutes, such as proline, trehalose, and glycine betaine, to stimulate growth (11). The compatible solutes either can be taken up from the growth medium if available or, if none are present, need to be synthesized de novo by the cell. Betaine (also known as glycine betaine or trimethylglycine) is one of the most common and effective osmolytes utilized by Salmonella spp. Although betaine cannot be synthesized by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, it can be transported from the growth medium under high external osmolality conditions (8). In the absence of osmoprotectants in the environment, trehalose is thought to be the main osmoprotectant synthesized by Escherichia coli and Salmonella.Predictive microbiology has become a main tool to describe the growth of microorganisms in recent years. Predictive models concentrate mainly on the ...