ABSTRACT
      Babies, especially premature infants and immunocompromised, as well as children under 1 year are highly vulnerable to infection by pathogens. Therefore, food security in regard to infant milk formula is very important. Epidemiological studies have implicated Cronobacter sakazakii as an occasional contaminant in powdered infant formula (PIFM) being due to outbreaks of varying degrees of producing sepsis, neonatal meningitis, necrotizing enterocolitis, meningitis and even death (40-80% of cases). Therefore after being listed as a microorganism "severe risk to populations restricted" by the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Food Programme (2002), researchers around the world try to seek measures to control and eradicate this problem. 
This doctoral thesis presents the study of the use of different measures of growth control and / or inactivation (hurdles) of C. sakazakii as: pulsed electric fields (PEF), high hydrostatic pressure (HHP), storage under refrigeration or the addition of natural ingredients with antimicrobial capacity. These technologies are characterized by enabling to obtain a microbiologically safe product, with a greater respect for the nutritional components that the conventional heat treatment. In order to be able to make predictions about the final concentration of C. sakazakii in our product, fittings have been made of experimental data to mathematical primary models (Bigelow, Weibull, Log-logistic, Baranyi, Gompertz) and secondary (square root model, Arrhenius model) that define the behavior of the organism in each case. These models have provided the basis for conducting an exposure assessment, the likely scenarios that arise related to the preparation, use and storage of infant formula in hospitals, with the aim of establishing possible scenarios of risk / no risk depending on the conditions: temperature and storage time of the product to be treated by PEAI