Identification and in-depth characterization of microbiota associated with spontaneously fermented Faroese "skerpikjøt": a pilot study

Project Details

Description

Traditional dry fermented sheep legs (Faroese: skerpikjøt) have been a local delicacy for centuries in the Faroe Islands. The lams are slaughtered in October and the carcasses are hung on beams in wooden small-scale storehouses (Faroese: Hjallur) for maturation and drying at ambient temperatures and moist for up to ½ a year. The fermentation of skerpikjøt is not controlled and the meat texture, odour and flavour can vary significantly between years and between hjallar. During maturation the skerpikjøt undergoes relevant changes in physio-chemical characteristics, which among other things relies on natural contamination by environmental microorganisms as well as on temperature and moisture. The contamination occurs during slaughtering and handling and the variation relies on that each “hjallur” has a unique house microbiota of useful micro-organisms for the fermentation and flavouring of the “skerpikjøt”.

In-depth knowledge on the micro-organisms involved in the fermentation of skerpikjøt is practically negligible.

In this pilot study we suggest using culture-dependent and culture-independent high-throughput sequencing (HTS) techniques for the characterization of microbiota involved in fermentation of skerpikjøt.
StatusActive
Effective start/end date1/07/15 → …

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