Metatranscriptomics of beef spoilage microbiota

Diversity of food spoilage organisms is generally well known, whereas interactions and the activities of the most important spoilage-related pathways during microbial succession in the developing spoilage microbiomes is not yet understood. Our results illustrate how a microbial food spoilage community composition and its gene activities changes timewise during exponential growth and after detection of sensory spoilage changes. We have provided new data, including activity of yeasts, enabling understanding of the gene activities of a meat spoilage microbiome during food shelf life. This is relevant for developing better approaches for meat quality evaluation since the current destructive microbiological methods or detection of specific spoilage organisms do not show if the community is approaching activities related to onset of spoilage.