Bacteriocin-producing Lactobacillus sakei C2 as starter culture in fermented sausages

- Lactobacillus sakei C2 established its prominent position during sausage fermentation.
- L. sakei C2 played an important role in the control of harmful microorganisms.
- Inoculation with L. sakei C2 decreased the content of MDA and nitrate in the fermented sausage.
- L. sakei C2 increased the color values of L* and a*, and magnitude of absorbance.
- L. sakei C2 improved the flavor and overall acceptability of the sausage.

Lactobacillus sakei C2, which could produce a bacteriocin with a broad inhibitory spectrum, have been proven to have certain probiotic potential. The practical application of L. sakei C2 as starter culture in the production of fermented sausage was investigated. During the sausage fermentation, L. sakei C2 established its prominent position in the microbial ecosystem, and, over 62.5% and 87.5% isolates were detected at each sampling point, when respectively inoculated with 5 and 7 log CFU/g. Moreover, L. sakei C2 as starter culture played an important role in the control of harmful microorganisms presented in the fermentation. Malondialdehyde (MDA) content and nitrite content in the samples of fermented sausages decreased with the increase of the inoculation concentration of L. sakei C2. Inoculation with L. sakei C2 significantly increased the color values of L* (lightness), and a* (redness), and magnitude of absorbance, which indicated that L. sakei C2 might increase the amount of nitrosylmyoglobin (NO-Mb) in the fermented sausages. By the evaluation of the panel, flavor and overall acceptability of the fermented sausage processed with 7 log CFU/g of L. sakei C2 was significantly superior to those processed with lower inocula (5 log CFU/g) and the control. All these results indicted that L. sakei C2 had good potential to be used as starter culture in the production of fermented sausages.