Abstract: For formulating reasonable measures for the prevention and control of bacterial antibiotic resistance to ensurefood safety, penicillin (PEN), erythromycin (ERY), tetracycline (TET), streptomycin (STR) and chloramphenicol (CHL)resistance of lactic acid bacteria (LABs) and the corresponding resistance genes were evaluated, including Enterococcusmundtii (n = 5), Enterococcus faecalis (n = 2), Enterococcus hirae (n = 2), Lactococcus lactis (n = 7), Leuconostocmesenteroides (n = 2), Leuconostoc holzapfelii (n = 3) and Weissella cibaria (n = 79) from fresh red bell peppers usedfor Sichuan pickle fermentation. All of the isolated strains were susceptible to PEN or ERY, but they had solo, doubleor triplicate resistance to TET, STR and CHL. All the isolates of L. mesenteroides as well as some strains of E. hirae,E. faecalis and L. holzapfelii showed solo STR resistance. Some strains of E. faecalis, E. hirae, L. lactis and W. cibaria haddouble resistance to STR and TET, as well as STR and CHL. However, isolates with triplicate resistances to STR, TETand CHL were only found in W. cibaria. It was found that except norA, sepA, tet(A), tet(O) and aac(6’)-aph(2’) genes,all antibiotic resistance genes were harbored by the resistant isolates partly or completely. The multiple-drug resistanceefflux pump genes efrA, tolC, norC, sugE and mdfA showed higher positive rates (which were 49%, 41%, 48%, 41% and47%, respectively) than the ribosomal protection protein genes and the enzymatic modification genes in the correspondingpolymerase chain reaction (PCR). Even though the dissemination of these antibiotic resistances needs to be further studied,such results demonstrated that food safety concerns will be partly focused on antibiotic resistance of LABs on fresh red bellpeppers according to Qualified Presumption of Safety criteria.

Key words: red bell peppers, lactic acid bacteria, food safety, antibiotic resistance, antibiotic resistance genes