Investigation of lactic acid bacterial profiles in commercial rice wine and their effect on metabolites during low-temperature storage

[Display omitted] •Commercial non-pasteurized makgeolli generally contained lactic acid bacteria (LAB).•The most abundant and frequently detected genus in makgeolli was Lactobacillus.•LAB maintained about 5 log CFU/mL of viable cell number until 30 days of cold storage.•LAB did not affect the quality of makgeolli during low-temperature storage. Makgeolli, the traditional Korean rice wine, is generally considered to contain lactic acid bacteria (LAB) despite its bacterial inoculation-free brewing process. The existence of LAB in makgeolli often presents inconsistent trends in microbial profiles and cell numbers. Therefore, to establish LAB-related insights, 94 commercial non-pasteurized products were collected and microbial communities and metabolites were analyzed using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and GC–MS, respectively. All samples contained various LAB genera and species, with an average viable cell number of 5.61 log CFU/mL. Overall, 10 LAB genera and 25 LAB species were detected; the most abundant and frequent LAB genus was Lactobacillus. There was no significant change in the LAB composition profile or lactic acid content during low-temperature storage, indicating the presence of LAB did not significantly affect the quality of makgeolli under low-temperature storage conditions. Overall, this study contributes to understand the microbial profile and role of LAB in makgeolli.