Your brother goes on to explain the concept of decimal reduction (D-value) time to you. To illustrate his point, he tells you that if the D-value for Giardia was 3 minutes and the starting number of cells was 104, the time it would take to eliminate all of the Giardia cells would be

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

D-value is the time required to reduce the microbial population by 90%. So, to eliminate all of the Giardia cells, we need to reduce the population by 99.999% (5 D-values). 5 D-values x 3 minutes/D-value = 15 minutes.

Your Brother Goes on to Explain the Concept of Decimal