Fig. 4
Mass sequence-based analysis of the microbial composition during spoilage of RTE meals. Development of the microbial composition of RTE rice meals was monitored during 12 days (t00–t12) storage/spoilage at 7 °C, by mass sequence-based microbial typing. The heat map shows the number of normalized (104 total reads/sample) reads per sample per unique sequence (below the heat map the legend of the color code is provided). For clarity, the actual numbers of normalized reads per sample are also shown. From 422 genera, six were selected showing high abundance and diversity (in time and between treatments) during spoilage time. The panels show microbial composition changes of untreated RTE meal (a), RTE meal treated with sorbate (b), or RTE meal treated with propionate, lactate, or acetate (c). Please note that more genera have been observed than shown in this figure. All observed genera are shown in Additional file 5