AimsTo isolate lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from pao cai, a Chinese traditional fermented vegetable, with outstanding inhibitory activity against Salmonella inoculated on fresh-cut apple, using a modelling method. Methods and ResultsFour kinds of pao cai were selected. A total of 122 isolates exhibited typical LAB characteristics: Gram-positive and catalase negative, among which 104 (8524%) colonies showed antibacterial activity against Salmonella by the well diffusion assay. Four colonies showing maximum antibacterial radius against Salmonella were selected to co-inoculate with Salmonella on fresh-cut apple and stored at 10 degrees C, further identified as three strains of Lactobacillus plantarum and one strain of Lactobacillus brevis by 16s rRNA gene sequence analysis. The modified Gompertz model was employed to analyse the growth of the micro-organisms on apple wedges. Two of the four selected strains showed antagonistic activity against Salmonella on fresh-cut apple, one of which, RD1, exhibited best inhibitory activity (Salmonella were greatly inhibited when co-inoculated with RD1 at 10 degrees C at 168h). No deterioration in odour or appearance of the apple piece was observed by the triangle test when fresh-cut apple was inoculated with RD1. ConclusionsThe mathematical modelling method is essential to select LAB with outstanding inhibitory activity against Salmonella associated with fresh-cut apple. LAB RD1 holds promise for the preservation of fresh-cut apple. Significance and Impact of the StudyThis study provided a new method on fresh-cut product preservation. Besides, to make the LAB isolating procedure a more correct one, this study first added the mathematical modelling method to the isolating procedure.