Kinetics of deactivation of Bacillus cereus spores Original Research Article

The deactivation process for Bacillus cereus endospores was studied. Results indicated that, after being activated, endospores deactivate as a function of storage time. The ageing of endospores affects the deactivation process, with older endospores showing a lower reduction percentage than fresh ones in counts. The presence of germinant appears to affect the reduction percentage, but only at storage temperatures of 12°C and 20°C. The deactivation process showed a large tail with activated endospores for germination and growth, and it can be described by using the Weibull probability distribution function as a model.