Relationships between the bacterial diversity and metabolites of a Chinese fermented pork product, sour meat

Abstract

Summary The present study evaluated the relationship between the bacterial diversity and metabolites of various sour meats, a traditional fermented meat product. The results showed that sour meats had a low pH (average of 4.34), low water activity ( a w , an average of 0.917), and high lactic acid (~19 177.48 mg kg −1 ) and free amino acid (FAA) (~4047.65 mg kg −1 ) concentrations. The lactic acid bacteria (LAB), especially Lactobacillus and Weissella , were predominated in the samples. The alcohols, aldehydes and esters accounted for the major components of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Of which, (E)‐2‐octenal, nerol, cis‐4‐decenal, tetradecanal, linalyl acetate, linalool, 1‐octen‐3‐ol, hexanal, 1‐heptanol, benzaldehyde and (E)‐2‐decenal were considered as the key VOCs of sour meats. The redundancy analysis (RDA) and Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that LAB ( Lactobacillus and Weissella ) and salt were positively correlated with most FAAs and VOCs. Overall, higher salinity, lower a w and abundant LAB might be the indicators of good sour meat quality.