“…Our results indicate that the quantification of k is more influenced by possibly uncommon shapes, induced by high stressful conditions, than the other parameters l, A and AUC, resulting both in negative values and broad CI. Modelling of bacterial lag time is complicated because the mechanisms governing lag time are not fully understood (Swinnen et al, 2004;Kosekia & Nonaka, 2012). It is known that bacterial lag time is influenced not only by current environmental conditions but also by multiple other factors, such as previous growth conditions (Swinnen et al, 2004;Ryall et al, 2012), initial cell counts (Baranyi & Pin, 1999) and stochastic variability (McKellar & Hawke, 2006;Koutsoumanis, 2008;Ginovart et al, 2011).…”