Identification of lactobacilli from meat and meat products

Schemes for a rapid and simple identification of lactobacilli from meat and meat products are presented which also include the species only recently published (e.g. L. divergens and L. carnis), and which were verified by the investigation of 229 strains newly isolated from meat and meat products and of nine type strains.They are primarily based on differences in the fermentation of sugars and other easily determinable physiological characteristics, and therefore permit a rapid assignment of a new isolate to one of the Lactobacillus species. However, in most instances this identification has to be confirmed by determining additional characteristics (e.g. the whole range of fermented carbohydrates, types of murein etc.).