Screening and identification of microorganism degrading nitrite in Chinese sauerkraut

Nitrite contamination can cause serious harm to human health, biological method is a feasible way to eliminate nitrite in food. In this study, microbial strains degrading nitrite were isolated and screened from six kinds of fermented vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, celery, turnip, carrot and cucumber) after the nitrite peak. The separated 285 strains were carried out nitrite reduction reaction test, the results showed that 21 strains could degrade more than 40 percent sodium nitrite; 86 strains could degrade more than 50 percent sodium nitrite; 114 strains could degrade more than 60 percent sodium nitrite; 64 strains could degrade more than 90 percent sodium nitrite. The 64 strains of actic acid bacteria were identified as Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus pentosus, Leuconostoc mesenteroides by biological and chemical reaction identification and 16S rRNA gene identification. These results will provide the principle and method of processing the safe products of the silage fermentation, meat fermentation and the pickled vegetable with low nitrite content.