Spoilage-related bacterial diversity of vacuum-packed plant-based meat as affected by essential oil and preservative

Plant-based meat products have the potential to alleviate meat shortages, and has a limited shelf life of a few days under refrigeration. The main cause of food spoilage is the microorganism growth. In order to investigate which bacteria caused the spoilage and spoilage of plant-based meat, high-throughput sequencing technology was used to determine the predominant spoilage bacterial flora in untreated vacuum-packed (Placed for 14 days) plant-based meat and vacuum-packed plant-based meat treated with a composite essential oil (Placed for 112 days) or composite preservative (Placed for 70 days). The dominant flora in vacuum-packed plant-based meat was Enterococcus (accounting for 86.2%). The main bacterial families in the compound essential oil treatment group were norank_chloroplast and Lactobacillaceae (accounting for 74.2% and 14.23% of total abundance), and in the compound preservative treatment group were norank_chloroplast, Pseudomonadaceae, and Carnobacteriaceae (accounting for 35.98%, 33.19%, and 17.96% of total abundance). Treatment with compound essential oil or compound preservative not only prolongs the shelf life of plant-based meat but also modifies the spoilage bacterial flora. Afterwards, research needs to be continued on the molds and fungi that cause the spoilage of plant-based meat, filling the gap in this research direction. Due to provide practical support for the development of the plant-based meat preservation industry.