Empirical models describe a set of data in a convenient mathematical relationship without considering any underlying phenomena (Ross and Dalgaard 2004). Examples of empirical models used in the microbial food safety area: the secondary predictive microbial models of square-root-type or Ratkowsky-type (Ratkowsky et al., 1982) and cardinal parameter models (Rosso et al., 1993), the log-logistic, log-probit and Weibull(-Gamma) models as dose-response models (FAO/WHO, 2003), time-temperature models (Laguerre et al., 2014; Laguerre and Flick, 2010; Lecoq et al., 2016) and epidemiological models.