## 4 Conclusions  
This study provides the identification and quantification of the growth/no-growth limits and the subsequent behavior of _Salmonella_ and _L. monocytogenes_ in pressurized DCH. This information can be relevant for producers of DCH, which can take advantage of it to adopt process and/or product criteria that can be implemented in the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan to manage the safety of their products. In this respect, the data provided in this study highlight the importance of considering the storage temperature as a criterion throughout the entire food chain, since it is the main factor not only inhibiting the growth but also favoring the non-thermal inactivation of mesophilic _Salmonella_ in pressurized DCH. In the case of the psychotrophic _L. monocytogenes_, producers of DCH can consider the identified growth/no-growth threshold value of the \(a_{w}\) in the final product as a product criterion to be implemented in the HACCP with the aim of proving that their products can be classified as RTE foods unable to support the growth of _L. monocytogenes_.  
The impact of the combination of factors, e.g., the intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics of the products on the behavior of pathogens after HPP is diverse, highlighting the need to evaluate the microbiological risk associated with DCHs on a case-by-case basis. In this framework, the quantified inactivation or growth kinetics of _Salmonella_ and _L. monocytogenes_ in pressurized DCHs with different intrinsic characteristics can help producers of DCH to detect scenarios of particular risk comprising HPP lethality and/or the survival and growth of pathogens during storage. Moreover, producers of DCH can take advantage of the data provided in this study to enhance the safety of their products by designing strategies, such as the application of corrective storage before DCH commercialization, to reach the performance criteria for _Salmonella_ and _L. monocytogenes_ and thereby to enhance the compliance with regulatory, customer, and internal requirements during the shelf-life of DCH.  
The following supporting information can be downloaded at: [[https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app122412732/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app122412732/s1)]([https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app122412732/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app122412732/s1)), Figure S1: Detailed description of the modeling procedure for calculating the gamma (\(\gamma_{X}\)) values. Table S1: Cardinal parameters of _Salmonella_ and _L. monocytogenes_ used to estimate the growth/no-growth boundary through the gamma concept in the present study. Table S2: Gamma factors (\(\gamma\)), interaction term between factors (\(\xi\)), and overall gamma factors (\(\Gamma\)) calculated for _Salmonella_ and _L. monocytogenes_ according to the extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics of dry-cured hams (DCH) used in this study. Refs. [15; 22; 23; 28; 29; 30] are cited in the Supplementary Materials.  
Conceptualization, S.B.-C. and N.B.; methodology, S.B.-C., C.S.-C. and L.C.; formal analysis, C.S.-C. and L.C.; investigation, N.B., S.B.-C. and A.J.; writing--original draft preparation, C.S.-C.; writing--review and editing, S.B.-C., A.J., L.C. and N.D.; supervision, S.B.-C. and L.C.; project administration, S.B.-C.; funding acquisition, S.B.-C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This work was supported by the Consolidated Research Group (2017 SGR 1650), the CERCA Programme (Generalitat de Catalunya), and the international mobility grant of Universite de Brest (call 2020-1) awarded to [PERSON].  
Not applicable.  
**Index Availability Statement:** Data available on request.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.