# Manufacture of a Potential Antifungal Ingredient Using Lactic Acid Bacteria from Dry-Cured Sausages
## 4 Conclusions  
In the study, 42 antifungal LAB isolated from dry-cured sausages were evaluated against 6 fungi of the _Aspergillus_ and _Penicillium_ genera. Firstly, a battery of bacteria was isolated from dry-cured meat products and characterized according to their antifungal properties. Among them, 14 presented antifungal capacity and 3 inhibited the growth of all fungi assayed. The _P. pentosaceus_ C15 showed higher antifungal activity in vitro; these bacteria were selected for the preparation of several fermented-meat broth (MB2, MB4, MB8 and MB10). MB were elaborated changing de MRSb formulation. The MB10 and MB formulated with 10% of freeze-dried loin pork demonstrated higher antifungal activity through agar diffusion and microdilution method.  
In particular, the MB10 fermented with _P. pentosaceus_ C15 was selected to elaborate a postbiotic antifungal ingredient due to their higher antifungal activity. The chemical characterization highlighted that the MB10 formulation was rich in phenolic acids and organic acids such as lactic acid and acetic acid. Moreover, the postbiotic product changed the VOCs composition and increased the concentration and number of antifungal compounds detected.  
Discovering the synergistic process amongst antifungal agents might provide understanding in increasing the effect while modifying the implicated bacterial or nutritional compositions, subsequently leading to food applications. PCA analysis indicated that some antifungal agents enabled us to differentiate strains by their production. For instance, _P. pentosaceus_ C15 and C12 were distinguished by the production of aldehydes such as heptanal, decneal, and dodecanal. In contrast, _L. plantarum_ C60 was differentiated from _P. pentosaceus_ strains due to the production of 3-(4-hydrodoxy-3-methoxyl) propionic.  
Further research will focus on the application of the postbiotic antifungal ingredient (MB10-C15) in the development of dry-cured meat products, as well as study c inhibition of mycotoxins synthesis that can potentially harm the consumers health.  
The following supporting information can be downloaded at: [[https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/foods12071427/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/foods12071427/s1)]([https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/foods12071427/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/foods12071427/s1)), Table S1: Elaboration of meat broths for fermentation for lactic acid bacteria; Table S2: Antifungal activity of formulated meat broths (MB) and MRS broth fermented by Pediococcus pentosaceus C15 during 24, 48, and 72 h at 37 \({}^{\circ}\)C. The bacterial-free supernatant (BFS) was freeze-dried, resuspended at a concentration of 500 g/L, and tested against six toxigenic fungi; Table S3: Identification of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) of the fermented Meat Broth 10, with retention time, chemical class, calculated LRI (LRI exp.), and references [69; 70; 71; 72; 73; 74; 75; 76].  
Conceptualization, J.M. and G.M.; methodology, T.d.M.N.; formal analysis, T.d.M.N., J.C. and C.L.; investigation, T.d.M.N.; resources, J.M. and G.M.; data curation, T.d.M.N., J.C.  
and C.L.; writing--original draft preparation, T.d.M.N., J.C., C.L., J.M. and G.M.; visualization, J.C. and C.L.; writing--review and editing, T.d.M.N., J.C., C.L., J.M. and G.M.; supervision, G.M.; project administration, J.M. and G.M.; funding acquisition, J.M. and G.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, grant number PID2019-108070 RB-100.  
The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.  
The authors would like to thank the program of the University of Valencia (Attaccio de Talent UV-INV-PREDOC19F1-1006684).  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.