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

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.