The Microbiome of an Active Meat Curing Brine

Abstract

Traditional food products are important to our culture and heritage, and to the continued success of the food industry. Many of the production processes associated with these products have not been subjected to an in-depth microbial compositional analysis. The traditional process of curing meat, both preserves a natural protein source, as well as increasing its organoleptic qualities. One of the most important salting processes is known as Wiltshire curing. The Wiltshire process involves injecting pork with a curing solution and immersing the meat into microbial-rich brine which promotes the development of the distinct organoleptic characteristics. The important microbial component of Wiltshire brine has not been extensively characterized. We analyzed the key microbial component of Wiltshire brine by performing microbiome analysis using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies. This analysis identified the genera, Marinilactibacillus, Carnobacterium, Leuconostoc, and Vibrio as the core microflora present in Wiltshire curing brine. The important food industrial applications of these bacteria were also assessed. The bacterial diversity of the brine was investigated, and the community composition of the brine was demonstrated to change over time. New knowledge on the characterization of key microbiota associated with a productive Wiltshire brine is an important development linked to promoting enhanced quality and safety of meat processing in the food industry.

Microbiome and Functional Analysis of a Traditional Food Process: Isolation of a Novel Species (Vibrio hibernica) With Industrial Potential

“…To sample and characterize the brine, procedures were followed from Woods et al (2019). Brine was sampled from a fully Wiltshire compliant facility longitudinally at three timepoints, Day 0 where the brine is composed of half "spent" brine and half newly reconstituted brine, Day 20, where this brine was used for 20 days to cure different meats and Day 40, where the brine was deemed to be "spent."…”

“…The brine was sampled in late 2016 from three monitored curing containers. These samples are distinct from the previously characterized brine samples in Woods et al (2019). To culture the brine microflora, Tryptic Soy Broth (TSB) (Merck) with 1.5% Agar (Merck) (TSA) ± additional 6% NaCl (Sigma) was used, incubated at 23 • C for 2 weeks.…”

“…The NGS of marker genes, such as the 16S rRNA gene, provides an accurate snapshot of the bacterial content within a food process and has been successfully applied to characterize a number of traditional meat processes (Mayo et al, 2014;Franciosa et al, 2018;Woods et al, 2019). Moreover, NGS sequence datasets could be applied to functional prediction algorithms such as Tax4Fun to aid in the interrogation of the potential metabolic capabilities of traditional bacterial food processes (Aßhauer et al, 2015).…”

“…Using cold adapted bacteria, referred to as psychrophiles, to process food at lower temperatures would be advantageous and increase the food safety of a product (Durán Quintana et al, 1999). This Wiltshire process has been successfully profiled for its core microbial content (Woods et al, 2019). The core genera identified in a Wiltshire compliant brine were Marinilactibacillus, Carnobacterium, Leuconostoc, and Vibrio.…”

“…Species of Marinilactibacillus, Carnobacterium, and Leuconostoc are known as lactic acid producing bacteria and these Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) strains are often used in food processing (Toffin et al, 2005;Lucena-Padros et al, 2015;Pogacic et al, 2016;Soto Del Rio Mde et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2017;Saraoui et al, 2017). A Vibrio species has previously been identified in a Wiltshire compliant brine with no detrimental effect to the end product (Hinrichsen et al, 1994;Woods et al, 2019). Moreover, an unidentified autochthonous Vibrio species from a Wiltshire brine, was used to inoculate a brine and the meat was cured in this mixture.…”