The production of ready-to-eat meat alternatives is currently on the rise, due to societal lifestyle trends, including flexitarianism, vegetarianism, and veganism. They usually consist of either processed meat substitutes that have been derived from plants or edible insects, depending on the market niche. Since the market relevance of such products has only recently become of importance, little is known about their associated microbial communities. The latter are nevertheless important because of their potential role in spoilage and food safety. In this study, several ready-to-eat meat alternatives in the Belgian market were analysed (including 8 vegetarian and 6 vegan imitations of meat products as well as one insect sample). Bacterial counts were relatively low compared to meat products, ranging from <2.0 to 8.7 log cfu g⁻¹, with differences between the various products. The bacterial load on the edible insect sample was generally higher than those on vegan and vegetarian products. In total, 426 isolates were collected from different selective agar media and classified and identified using (GTG)₅-PCR fingerprinting, followed by gene sequencing. Isolates retrieved from the vegetarian products consisted mostly of Lactobacillus sakei. The majority of the isolates originating from the vegan products also belonged to the species Lb. sakei, Enterococcus faecium, and Carnobacterium divergens, whereas the insect product mainly contained E. faecium, besides the presence of Macrococcus caseolyticus and Cronobacter sakazakii. The occasional presence of relatively high levels of enterococci merits attention in view of food safety.

由于包括自由主义，素食主义和素食主义在内的社会生活方式的发展，即食肉类替代品的生产目前正在增长。它们通常由源自植物的食用肉替代品或食用昆虫制成，具体取决于市场细分市场。由于此类产品的市场相关性直到最近才变得重要，因此对其相关的微生物群落知之甚少。然而，后者因其在变质和食品安全中的潜在作用而很重要。在这项研究中，分析了比利时市场上的几种即食肉类替代品（包括对肉类产品的8种素食主义者和6种素食主义者的模仿以及一种昆虫样品）。与肉类产品相比，细菌计数相对较低，范围从<2.0到8.7 log cfu g^-1，不同产品之间存在差异。可食用昆虫样品上的细菌载量通常高于纯素食和素食产品上的细菌载量。总共，从不同的选择性琼脂培养基中收集了426个分离株，并使用（GTG）₅ -PCR指纹图谱进行分类和鉴定，然后进行基因测序。从素食产品中分离出的菌株主要是日本乳杆菌。源自纯素食产品的大多数分离株也属于Lb物种。清酒，屎肠球菌，和肉杆菌divergens，而昆虫产物主要含有屎肠球菌，除了存在干酪球菌和阪崎肠杆菌。考虑到食品安全性，偶尔存在相对较高水平的肠球菌值得关注。