Molecular identification of the bacterial populations of steak tartare, a raw consumed meat preparation: a practical use of targeted metagenomic analysis

Steak tartare is a popular meat dish in Belgium and other european countries. It is often consumed with french fries or as sandwich spread. This product, due to its raw nature, is highly sensitive to bacterial alteration. A better understanding of the bacterial content of this meat product will thus be insightful to master the alteration hazards. Throughout a targeted metagenomic analysis we characterized the bacterial populations of several steak tartare samples. These samples were bought and analyzed during the same day, from three different commercial sources: butchery, sandwich vendor and restaurant. A classic microbiological analysis was performed in parallel. The metagenomic analysis was targeted on two different hypervariable regions of the bacterial 16S rDNA, in order to compare the bacterial identification efficiency.
A total of 60,500 sequences for 12 samples were submitted to a metagenomic analysis. The best hypervariable region enabled us to identify 356 different bacterial species. Lactobacillus algidus is the leading bacterial species, representing 52% of the total analyzed sequences, followed by an uncultured Pseudomonas sp. (8.43%) and Photobacterium phosphoreum (7.92%).
The analysis of the results shows that remarkable differences appear between the three sources of steak tartare. First, the samples from the butchery are mainly composed of Lactobacillus populations and to a lesser extend of environmental contaminants like Xanthomonas campestris. On the opposite, the samples from the restaurant are contaminated with higher level of Leuconostocaceae like Leuconostoc carnosum or an uncultured Weissella sp., or with gamma-proteobacteria like Pseudomonas sp. or Psychrobacter sp. These last samples were characterized with some alteration (slime, off odor) that can thus be put in relation with the bacterial populations identified.
Combining a broad-range sequencing effort to a rigorous computer analysis gives a powerful tool for the microbiology of food products. Its application can be virtually extended to every food product be readily transposed to the food industry.