Total mesophilic counts underestimate in many cases the contamination levels of psychrotrophic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in chilled-stored food products at the end of their shelf-life

► Microbiological analysis on retail, packaged and chilled stored food products. ► Plates incubated at 22 °C and 30 °C. ► Significant underestimation of microbial load when incubation was performed at 30 °C. ► Isolation of psychrotrophic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from plates incubated at 22 °C. ► Isolates had poor or no growth at 30 °C.