Abstract:To explore the differences in the physicochemical properties and microbial communities of traditional fermented chili products,the physicochemical indexes of six traditional fermented chili products from different regions were compared,and the bacterial diversity of these six samples was analyzed using Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that the total acidity,pH value,sodium chloride content,and sodium nitrite content of the six fermented chili samples ranged from 1.58 to 24.21 g/kg,3.23 to 5.56,2.80% to 7.88%,and 0.31 to 1.03 mg/kg,respectively. The total bacterial count ranged from 3.85 to 6.30 lg（CFU/g）,indicating significant differences in the physicochemical indexes and total bacterial count among the different fermented chili products. A total of 443 bacterial genera with statistical significance were identified from the six samples,with the dominant genera（ those with a relative abundance greater than 10%）including Weissella,Lactiplantibacillus,Simplicispira,Ligilactobacillus,Limosilactobacillus,Lactobacillus,Bacillus,Pantoea,Acinetobacter,Pediococcus,Sphingobium and Citrobacter. Cluster analysis and principal component analysis showed that the microbial community structure of Jiangxi pickled chili was similar to that of Hunan fermented cayenne,while the microbial community structure of Jiangsu pickled chili was similar to that of Guizhou chopped pepper. However,Hunan chili sauce exhibited significant differences in its microbial community structure compared to the other five products. Functional prediction analysis found that chemoheterotrophy,fermentation,and aerobic chemoheterotrophy were the dominant metabolic processes.