## 3 Results  
### Bacterial Communities in Fermented Meat Products from Different Origins  
The characteristics with respect to the pH, salt content, and bacterial loads of each sample of the commercial fermented meat products examined are provided in Table 2. Most products were typical representatives of their geographical region of production. Only the Belgian fermented meat product encoded BE3, which claimed to be produced \"a l'ancienne\" (i.e., according to \"tradition\"), was somewhat atypical, as it had a considerably higher pH (5.7) than the other Belgian products with a pH of 5.1 (BE1) and 5.0 (BE2) (Table 2). In addition, the bacterial communities present in the various fermented meat products were assessed through amplicon-based HTS, based on 83,642 and 71,971 raw V4 and Tuf387/765 sequence reads on average per sample, respectively. The V4 sequence reads provided a first overview of the bacterial genera present in the different fermented meat products (Figure 1). It unveiled that _Lactobacillus_ was present in all samples, no matter the geographical origin of the product. In contrast, _Pediococcus_ was only found in samples from Belgian and German fermented meat products and _Pseudomonas_ was exclusive to one sample of a Belgian product. Samples from Spanish fermented meat products showcased the greatest microbial diversity, with genera such as _Bacillus_, _Brochothrix_, _Carnobacterium_, _Corynebacterium_, _Leuconostoc_, and _Tetragetococcus_ being present. _Staphylococcus_ was only found sporadically via this approach in Belgian, German, and Spanish fermented meat products, whereas it was present in all French and Italian ones. Figure 1: Distribution of amplicon sequencing variants (ASVs) of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene in selected commercial fermented meat products originating from BE (Belgium), DE (Germany), ES (Spain), FR (France), and IT (Italy), with “a” and “b” annotations in the sample names representing biological duplicate samples from the same product. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Sample**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**MSA Counts [log(CFU/g)]**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**MRS Agar Counts**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**pH**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Salt Content [g/100g]**} \\  & & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**[log(CFU/g)]**} & & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**SD**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Individual Average**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**SD**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Individual Average**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**SD**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Individual Average**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**SD**} \\ \hline BE1 & 5.40 & & & 6.75 & & & 5.12 & & & 4.10 & & & \\ BE2 & 5.13 & 5.18 & 0.20 & 8.27 & 7.76 & 0.87 & 5.00 & 5.27 & 0.37 & 4.60 & 4.30 & 0.26 \\ BE3 & 5.02 & & & 8.25 & & & 5.70 & & & 4.20 & & & \\ \hline DE1 & 5.57 & & & 7.14 & & & 4.78 & & & 3.80 & & & \\ DE2 & 5.00 & 5.17 & 0.35 & 7.91 & 7.64 & 0.43 & 4.57 & 4.66 & 0.11 & 3.25 & 3.43 & 0.32 \\ DE3 & 4.94 & & & 7.88 & & & 4.63 & & & 3.25 & & \\ \hline ES1 & 5.72 & & & 6.53 & & & 5.82 & & & 3.00 & & \\ ES2 & 5.80 & 5.83 & 0.12 & 5.60 & 6.83 & 1.41 & 6.04 & 5.85 & 0.18 & 3.00 & 3.27 & 0.46 \\ ES3 & 5.95 & & & 8.37 & & & 5.69 & & & 3.80 & & \\ \hline FR1 & 8.16 & & & 7.70 & & & 5.70 & & & 5.70 & & \\ FR2 & 6.52 & 7.31 & 0.82 & 8.26 & 8.16 & 0.42 & 5.51 & 5.59 & 0.10 & 4.60 & 4.83 & 0.78 \\ FR3 & 7.26 & & & 8.52 & & & 5.56 & & & 4.20 & & \\ \hline IT1 & 8.63 & & & 8.44 & & & 5.66 & & & 3.40 & & \\ IT2 & 6.68 & 7.34 & 1.12 & 8.56 & 8.34 & 0.30 & 5.26 & 5.57 & 0.28 & 3.30 & 3.67 & 0.55 \\ IT3 & 6.70 & & & 8.00 & & & 5.80 & & & 4.30 & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Individual and average bacterial counts, pH, and salt content with standard deviation (SD) of selected commercial fermented meat products originating from BE (Belgium), DE (Germany), ES (Spain), FR (France), and IT (Italy). MSA, mannitol-salt-agar (representing presumptive staphylococcal species); MRS, de Man–Rogosa–Shurpe (representing presumptive lactic acid bacterial species).