The mycobiota of Speck, a traditional Tyrolean smoked and cured ham

Speck is a ham specialty product traditionally produced in South Tyrol (Ita ly) and North Tyrol (Austria) by farmers, butcheries, and meat industries. To date, nothing has been learned about fungi associated with this smoked a nd cured meat. Therefore, it was the main objective of this study to assess the typical mycobiota of Speck in relation to the different production typ es and the geographic provenance. A total of 121 Speck samples from North T yrol and South Tyrol was analyzed. From 63 isolated fungal species, only a few can be regarded as typical colonizers: Eurotium rubrum and Penicillium solitum were the dominating species in all types and parts of Speck (crust, meat, and fat). Eight other Penicillium spp. were relatively frequent. The species diversity increased from industrially produced Speck to products f rom butcheries and farmers, and it was higher in all types of South Tyrolea n products. Among the typical mycobiota, Penicillium verrucosum, Penicilliu m canescens, and Penicillium commune are known as potentially mycotoxigenic .