Characteristics and bacterial community of black glutinous rice tapai with various packaging types during fermentation

Black glutinous rice tapai (BGRT) is a traditional Indonesian fermented food. Various packaging materials have been used during the fermentation process. However, there is a lack of information regarding how different packaging types would affect the quality of BGRT. Therefore, the present work aimed to assess the impact of various packaging methods on BGRT quality and bacterial diversity. The packaging types employed included plastic boxes (BGRT-PB), banana leaves (BGRT-BL), and rose apple leaves (BGRT-RA). Results indicated that packaging type had no significant effect on the physicochemical characteristics of BGRT, except for reducing sugar content, where BGRT-BL displayed the highest reducing sugar content. Organoleptic profiles revealed a preference over BGRT-BL products among panellists, whereas BGRT-PB products were comparatively less preferred. Utilising the Illumina next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform, BGRT-PB generated 158,406 reads, and BGRT-BL generated 140,546 reads. NGS outcomes demonstrated differences in bacterial community composition between BGRT-BL and BGRT-PB. In conclusion, packaging type significantly affected sugar content, organoleptic profiles, and the bacterial community composition of BGRT. Among the three packaging types, BGRT-BL outperformed BGRT-PB and BGRT-RA. BGRT-BL exhibited the highest proportion of the genera Pediococcus and Limosilactobacillus. Therefore, further investigation is necessary to elucidate the roles of these bacteria in determining BGRT quality.