abstract
- Portuguese traditional fermented meat products constitute a valued economic and cultural heritage. The objective of this work was to screen the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) present in thealheira. 25 LABs were identified by Sanger sequencing of the 16S ribosomal gene. Sequencing results were aligned with sequences from the NCBI database using the BLAST algorithm. Genetic analysis showed a diverse lactic acid producing microbiome, and LABs from the family Lactobacillaceae and Leuconostocaceae were dominant, found in 64% of samples, while other organisms of the family Streptococcaceae and Enterococcaceae were found in 36% of samples. This work enabled the identification of LAB normally present in a traditional Portuguese product, as well as the desired technological characteristics that they can bestow to the product.
- The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021). The authors are also grateful to the EU PRIMA programme, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for funding the ArtiSaneFood project (PRIMA/0001/2018).