Abstract: Exploring the microbial community structure, succession and functional genes in traditional fermented foods has been the focus of common concern for academic and industrial researchers in the field of food for many years. Because of its high efficiency and relatively low cost, high-throughput sequencing has become one of the most important tools for exploring the microbiota of fermented foods. Based on high-throughput sequencing, metagenomics and metatranscriptomics have greatly advanced our knowledge about microbial succession, interaction and functional genes in various fermented foods. Here, we review the progress that has been made over the past eight years in the metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analysis of the microbiota in fermented foods. We also discuss the limitations and prospects of metagenomics and metatranscriptomics. We hope that this review will provide useful information for future research and industrial production of fermented foods.

Key words: fermented foods, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, microbial community structure, microbial succession, discovery of functional genes