Only a limited number of Lactobacillus
species is commonly isolated from meat fermentations and used as starter cultures.
Among them, L. sakei, L. curvatus and L.
plantarum, belonging to the sub - group of
facultative heterofermentative lactobacilli,
are generally used for this purpose. The main
energetic metabolism of these bacteria is the
dissimilation of sugar to organic acid by
means of glycolysis and phosphoketolase
pathways. When hexoses are the energy
source, lactic acid is the major fermentation
end product. Several studies clearly demonstrated that L. sakei is the predominant
species in fermented meat products, and its
use as a starter culture for sausage production
is widespread (Leroy et al. 2006 ).