Abstract:Enterobacteriaceae, Brochothrix thermosphacta, and total viable counts (TVC) are the important parameters that affect the shelf life of chilled chicken. Discovering the correlation between the parameters and the accuracy of the shelf-life prediction is conducive to monitoring the storage of chilled chicken. To develop microbial prediction system for shelf life of chilled chicken, the bacterial counts were calculated to establish the growth model of these parameters using SGompertz model. Meanwhile, the Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was performed for the parameters and the accuracy of the shelf-life prediction. Then the prediction system was written by Visual Basic (VB) and verified with actual samples. Results showed that the spoilage thresholds of Enterobacteriaceae, B. thermosphacta, and TVC were 4.433, 2.735, and 5.141 lg(CFU/g), respectively. The R2 in both SGompertz function and Square Root model were greater than 0.94. The Pearson’s coefficients of the parameters were 0.992 3 (P<0.01), 0.992 7 (P<0.01), and 0.995 1 (P<0.01), respectively. These findings suggested that the parameters were all related to the spoilage of chilled chicken, and the TVC had the highest correlation. The maximum relative error of the prediction system written in VB language for chilled chicken was less than 9%. It’s provided to be an efficient and convenient method for formulating the shelf life of chilled chicken.