Recently, novel detection methods have also developed for separating cells based on their physiological states (Ayrapetyan and Oliver, 2016). Fluorescence techniques combined with direct optical detection methods for the rapid assessment of bacterial viability have been increasingly followed for several years. Among these techniques, flow cytometry (FCM) has been shown to be a powerful tool for rapidly analyzing populations on a cell-by-cell basis and can be applied in many areas of food safety or medical microbiology (Léonard et al., 2016). The main principle is that particles in suspension are pumped into a narrow flow stream intersected by one or more laser beams. Single particles, such as microbial cells, are illuminated individually with the resulting light scatter and fluorescence emission detected at appropriate wavelengths (Bridier et al., 2015). Bridier et al. (2015) summarized the applications of FCM in food microbiology such as study of food bacteria function, detection of food microbial communities or detection and persistence of foodborne pathogens. Recently, Mathur et al. (2016) reviewed the advancement of FCM and the introduction of novel fluorochromes allow to study the viability of cells, the membrane structure and its integrity, and the membrane potential at a single-cell level. The ability to use FCM to visualize, enumerate and analyze a population of cells into subpopulations of varying physiological status is a valuable aid to understanding this intricate area for the microbiologists (Léonard et al., 2016). Indeed, the use of personalized probes and dyes for the detection of changes in specific targets and intracellular activities permits the targeted use of FCM to ascertain the structural and functional characteristics of a population of VBNC cells.