Screening of lactic acid bacteria with high protease activity from fermented sausages and antioxidant activity assessment of its fermented sausages

This study was conducted to screen the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) with admirable technological properties and high protease activity from traditional Chinese fermented sausages, and to investigate the effects of LAB on the antioxidant activity of peptides of fermented sausages. Seven strains were obtained from 133 LAB isolates. They complied with the criteria of meat starter cultures with high proteolytic activity. These strains were analyzed by API and sequence analysis of 16S rRNA to identify the five strains of Lactobacillus plantarum, one strain of L. fermentum, and one strain of L. pentosus. Furthermore, L. plantarum CD101 was inoculated with fermented sausages. LC-MS/MS was used to analyze the peptide composition. Compared with control group, using L. plantarum CD101 as starter cultures (Group L) led to a significant increase (P < 0.05) in antioxidant activity. The relative content of most peptides in Group L samples was largely higher than that in control samples.