Contribution of microbial community to flavor formation in tilapia sausage during fermentation with Pediococcus pentosaceus

Abstract Lactic acid bacteria as starter cultures can lead to rapid acidification for gel formation in fermented fish sausages. However, there is lack of study on the volatile flavor characteristics after starter culture addition and how they affect the microbial community on the flavor formation in fish sausages. In this work, the changes of volatile compounds and microbial community in the tilapia sausage during fermentation with Pediococcus pentosaceus were respectively studied by the headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing. A total of 83 volatile compounds were identified, among which 32 compounds were selected as the core volatile flavor compounds. The microbial diversity in the sausage significantly decreased as the fermentation time increased. There were 12 main microbial genera in whole fermentation stages. The anaerobes such as Pediococcus, Lactococcus, Enterobacter, and Citrobacter increased obviously after fermentation, especially for Pediococcus and Lactococcus, whose total abundance reached over 95% at the end of fermentation. The correlation network model showed that Pediococcus and Lactococcus contributed most to the volatile flavor formation, followed by Enterobacter, Citrobacter, and Photobacterium. This research provides an effective method to accelerate the volatile flavor formation and inhibit the spoilage microorganisms in the fermented tilapia sausage.