To culture or not to culture: careful assessment of metabarcoding data is necessary when evaluating the microbiota of a modified-atmosphere-packaged vegetarian meat alternative throughout its shelf-life period.

ABSTRACT:

Background

As the increased consumption of ready-to-eat meat alternatives is a fairly recent trend, little is known about the composition and dynamics of the microbiota present on such products. Such information is nonetheless valuable in view of spoilage and food safety prevention. Even though refrigeration and modified-atmosphere-packaging (MAP) can extend the shelf-life period, microbial spoilage can still occur in these products. In the present study, the microbiota of a vegetarian alternative to poultry-based charcuterie was investigated during storage, contrasting the use of a culture-dependent method to a culture-independent metagenetic method.

Results

The former revealed that lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were the most abundant microbial group, specifically at the end o

SUBMITTER: Duthoo E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8788083 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature