Microrisk Lab: An Online Freeware for Predictive Microbiology

Microrisk Lab is an R-based online modeling freeware designed to realize parameter estimation and model simulation in predictive microbiology. A total of 36 peer-reviewed models were integrated for parameter estimation (including primary models of bacterial growth/inactivation under static and nonisothermal conditions, secondary models of specific growth rate, and competition models of two-flora growth) and model simulation (including integrated models of deterministic or stochastic bacterial growth/inactivation under static and nonisothermal conditions) in Microrisk Lab. Each modeling section was designed to provide numerical and graphical results with comprehensive statistical indicators depending on the appropriate data set and/or parameter setting. In this study, six case studies were reproduced in Microrisk Lab and compared in parallel with DMFit, GInaFiT, IPMP 2013/GraphPad Prism, Bioinactivation FE, and @Risk, respectively. The estimated and simulated results demonstrated that the performance of Microrisk Lab was statistically equivalent to that of other existing modeling systems. Microrisk Lab allows for a friendly user experience when modeling microbial behaviors owing to its interactive interfaces, high integration, and interconnectivity. Users can freely access this application at https://microrisklab.shinyapps.io/english/ or https://microrisklab.shinyapps.io/chinese/.