Starter Cultures for Meat Fermentation 213the selection of strains well adapted to the
environment and able to compete with con-
taminant bacteria.
In the process of selection and choice of
a starter culture, the safety aspects such as
antibiotic resistance, virulence genes, and
undesirable metabolite formation should not
be overlooked.References
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Environmental Microbiology 69 : 4583 – 4594.some strains that produced enterotoxins have
been described. Vernozy - Rozand et al.
(1996) reported enterotoxin E as the most
frequent enterotoxin found in S. equorum and
S. xylosus , though Martin et al. (2006)
reported that the occurrence of staphylococ-
cal enterotoxin genes in CNS from slightly
fermented sausages was rare, detecting only
ent C in S. epidermidis. The coagulase - posi-
tive species, S. intermedius and S. aureus ,
have been more frequently related to staphy-
lococcal intoxication to date. Moreover, S.
intermedius are opportunistic pathogens in
implant infections, due to their ability to form
biofi lm on prosthetic materials.
The S. xylosus and S, carnosus strains cur-
rently used as starter cultures or isolated from
fermented meat products generally lack toxin
genes. The absence of genes coding for
staphylococcal enterotoxins or enterotoxin -
like superantigens is a qualifi cation required
for CNS strains selected for use as starter
cultures.
Conclusion
Selected starter cultures are powerful tools to
drive the fermentation of meat products,
allowing meats to reach the desired targets of
quality and safety. Their use in meat fermen-
tation results in an acceleration of fermen-
tation time, an improvement of safety (by
reducing undesirable microorganisms), and a
better fi nal quality of the products. The
choice of a selected starter culture should be
seen in the context of its application, since
functionality will depend on the type of
sausage, the technology applied, the ripening
time, and the ingredients and raw materials
used.
Moreover, the new information derived
from genetic analyses, such as genomic and
transcriptomic, provide a new instrument for
a scientifi cally sound selection of new tailor -
made starter cultures harboring the desired
physiological traits. The microbiota of tradi-
tional sausages will provide the source for