Effects of starter culture inoculation on microbial community diversity and food safety of Chinese Cantonese sausages by high-throughput sequencing

Effects of starter culture composed ofLactobacillus sakei,Pediococcus pentosaceus,Staphylococcus xylosusandStaphylococcus carnosusat the ratios (w/w) of 1:1:1:1 on bacterial community diversity and food safety of Chinese Cantonese sausages were demonstrated by high-throughput sequencing technology. At genus level, spoilage organisms and pathogenic bacteria such asVibriospp.,Acinetobacterspp.,Enterobacterspp.,Yersiniaspp. accounted for 54.13%, 10.01%, 6.94% and 5.35% of bacterial in the initial fermentation of spontaneous sausage, and the dominant bacteria ofLactobacillusspp. reached 84.61% on day 20. Accordingly, the total proportion ofPediococcusspp.,Lactobacillusspp. andStaphylococcusspp. were present higher than 98% during fermentation in fermented sausage by starter culture inoculation, andPediococcusspp. was dominant genus and increased from 53.53 to 74.09% during whole fermentation process. Moreover, the histamine accumulation was lower 84.17% in sausage fermented by starter culture inoculation than that of spontaneous sausage, suggesting that starter culture could decrease histamine accumulation of sausages significantly (P < 0.01). These results revealed that the starter culture inoculation was conducive to improve the microbial quality and food safety of Chinese Cantonese sausages.

Automated summary

The starter culture composed of Lactobacillus sakei, Pediococcus pentosaceus, Staphylococcus xylosus, and Staphylococcus carnosus at a ratio of 1:1:1:1 significantly decreased histamine accumulation in Chinese Cantonese sausages, improving microbial quality and food safety.