BACKGROUND: Baixi sufu (BS) is a traditional Chinese spicy fermented bean curd manufactured with a natural starter.In this study, the bacterial and fungal communities during BS fermentation were determined by culture and by the culture-independent method of high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Correlation analyses were performed to select the microorganisms potentially contributing to this fermentation. RESULTS: During the fermentation of BS, 162 bacterial and 97 fungal strains were isolated and identified, and a total of 268 314 bacterial and 287 844 fungal high-quality sequences were analyzed. In general, lactic acid bacteria (LAB), especially Enterococcus and Lactococcus, were dominant in the early stage of fermentation, and spore-forming bacteria, especially Bacillus spp., became the predominant bacteria by the end of fermentation. Geotrichum, Mortierella, and unclassified Ascomycota, were the major fungal populations, which could not be detected in the final product. Correlation analyses indicated that Enterococcus, Bacillus, Geotrichum, and unclassified Ascomycota correlated significantly and positively with amino nitrogen. However, due to the sporulation characteristics of Bacillus, they may have little effect on BS ripening. The presence of Bifidobacterium spp. in sufu is reported for the first time, but the excessive counts of the Bacillus cereus group (>10 5 CFU g −1 ) indicate a potential hazard to consumers.CONCLUSION: The profiles obtained from this study will contribute to the development of autochthonous starter cultures to control BS fermentation, and may lead to the development of novel strategies to shorten the fermentation time of sufu products.