Meat and seafood products are highly perishable foodstuffs, the preservation of which is crucial. Indeed, a bad preservation of these products may lead to important hygienic and safety risks as well as considerable economic loss, a situation that is particularly true for novel products. The utilisation of protective cultures in order to limit these risks is proposed since several years but is still not in common use, partially because a lack of knowledge of microbial ecosystems of these products. The partners of the French network FLOREPRO decided to share their know-how and scientific knowledge on one hand, and their various expertise about food on the other hand, in order to increase the knowledge of meat and seafood products and on the impact of protective cultures on these ecosystems and on the quality of the products. Our aim is thus to provide a sound scientific based information on the benefit that the utilisation of protective cultures may represent in the production of meat/fish foodstuffs. The project is divided into three tasks: - an as exhaustive as possible characterisation of the ecosystem of height selected products (meat and seafood) by the up to date most performing method, 16S rDNA pyrosequencing of the bacterial DNA present on these products, at the time of production and after the use by date. This task also encompasses the selection of putative spoiler micro-organisms from those products; - set up and sharing of model matrices and sensory analysis in order to reproduce spoilage and to prove the spoiling properties of the strains selected from the first task; - evaluation of the impact of already available protective cultures on spoilage, sensorial quality, and global ecosystem of the products we propose to study. The partners of this project are academics, agro institutes and one SME which was a pioneer in the commercialisation of protective cultures. Other industries, SMEs with no financial support, joined the project to furnish the foodstuffs to be analysed. Know-how, expertise and missions of the partners are complementary and about meat/fish products. The foodstuffs we selected are representative of a large panel of origins (beef, veal, poultry, fish, shellfish) and processes (ground, diced cubes, fillets, peeled) and concern novel products for which knowledge about their ecosystem and sanitary quality is scarce.

Colorectal cancer is the first cause of death in non-smokers: each day one hundred new cases are detected in France and 45 of them will die within few years. Red meat and processed meat intake is clearly a risk factor for colorectal cancer, according to meta-analyses of epidemiological studies. The increase in risk is not very high (+25-30%) but WCRF-2007 panel recommendations are strong: "Limit red meat intake (300 g/week at a population level), and avoid processed meat intake". These key recommendations to improve public health could lead to a drastic reduction of meat intake, and could have dramatic economical consequences be dramatic on the processed meat pork industry and on the bovine market. The research of preventive strategies is thus important to reduce colorectal cancer risk without eliminating any food from our plates. Two strategies can be considered: (i) industrial processes could be modified to produce healthier meat and processed meat, and (ii) consumers could adhere to specific recommendations (e.g., eating a specific protective food in the same meal as processed meat). The first suggestion would lead to production of processed meat without cancer risk, by changing food processing: the goal of this project is thus to define processing, and packaging that would improve food safety and decrease colorectal cancer risk. The central hypothesis is that heme iron in meat would increase lipoperoxidation, nitrosation and cytotoxicity of the intestinal content. Resulting aldehydes and N-nitrosated compounds would select tumor cells and promote tumor growth. The present project will thus test additives and processes to make beef and pork meat products that limit fat peroxidation, N-nitrosation, and cytotoxicity in the colon lumen. Most effective modifications will be identified in animal and cellular models, and these modifications will be validated in human volunteers. In addition, the research of molecular mechanisms should lead to new molecular biomarkers that we will use to translate results from rodents to Humans. Furthermore, the project aims to validate the acceptance of these new meat products by consumers, testing their sensory (organoleptic) properties. The project is structured in six steps: (i) beef and pork meat processing to obtain 28 beef meat products and 16 pork meat products. These products will be given to rodents to test (ii) the impact on peroxidation, cytotoxicity, nitrosylation and iron status in the colon. Following this step, six meat processes will be chosen, according to their effect on the above cited biomarkers. These six processed meats will be tested in rodents to see (iii) their effect on colorectal carcinogenesis, and (iv) their cellular and molecular mechanisms of effect. (v) Relevance of these processes will be tested in “real life” industrial workshop. Eventually, three processes will be chosen to be tested in human volunteers (vi) to check their effect on fecal peroxidation and cytotoxicity and on consumer acceptance. This scientific project is thus part of the effort of food industry to improve continuously the safety of food products, and specifically to adapt to the recently identified cancer risk associated with meat consumption.