Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy (4000 to 600 cm−1) was utilized to detect sublethally heat-injured microorganisms: Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium ATCC 14028, a Gram-negative bacterium, and Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 19113, a Gram-positive bacterium. A range of heat treatments ( N= 2) at 60 °C were evaluated: 0 D (control), 2 D, 4 D, 6 D, and 8 D using a D60 °C ( S. enterica serotype Typhimurium ATCC 14028 = 0.30 min, L. monocytogenes ATCC 19113 = 0.43 min). The mechanism of cell injury appeared to be different for Gram-negative and Gram-positive microbes as observed from differences in the 2nd derivative transformations and loadings plot of bacterial spectra following heat treatment. The loadings for PC1 and PC2 confirmed that the amide I and amide II bands were the major contribution to spectral variation, with relatively small contributions from C-H deformations, the antisymmetric P==O stretching modes of the phosphodiester nucleic acid backbone, and the C-O-C stretching modes of polysaccharides. Using soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA), the extent of injury could be predicted correctly at least 83% of the time. Partial least squares (PLS) calibration analysis was constructed using 5 latent variables for predicting the bacterial counts for survivors of the different heat treatments and yielded a high correlation coefficient ( R= 0.97 [ S. enterica serotype Typhimurium] and 0.98 [ L. monocytogenes]) and a standard error of prediction ( SEP= 0.51 [ S. enterica serotype Typhimurium] and 0.39 log10 CFU/mL [ L. monocytogenes]), indicating that the degree of heat injury could be predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]