ComBase is an online tool for quantitative food microbiology. Its main features are the ComBase database (browser) and ComBase models.

The focus of ComBase is describing and predicting how microorganisms survive and grow under a variety of primarily food-related conditions.

ComBase is a highly useful tool for food companies to understand safer ways of producing and storing foods. This includes developing new food products and reformulating foods, designing challenge test protocols, producing Food Safety plans, and helping public health organizations develop science-based food policies through quantitative risk assessment.

Over 60,000 records have been deposited into ComBase, describing how food environments, such as temperature, pH, and water activity, as well as other factors (e.g. preservatives and atmosphere) affect the growth of bacteria.

Each data record shows users how bacteria populations change for a particular combination of environmental factors. Mathematical models (the ComBase broth and food models) were developed on systematically generated data to predict how various organisms grow or survive under various conditions.