The natural microflora of sausage at the end of shelf-life are lactic acid bacteria.Some of these bacteria display an ability to inhibit other pathogenic micro-organisms.Eight batches of sausage from shihezi,Karamay and tacheng were collected at retail.Packs were stored at 4℃ and examined for chemical and microbiological characteristics at purchase date and at expiration date.pH,water activity and salt content were similar among all these products.There was a consistent pattern in the development of the microflora on sausage.The initial level of LAB was low on freshly produced sausage(102 CFU/g).At the end of the stated shelf-life,these micro-organisms represented mainly by Lactobacillus spp.attained 107 CFU/g while Enterobacteriaceae counts were consistently lower(105 CFU/g),which indicated that lactic acid bacteria had relatively competitive advantage.L.monocytogenes was not found in any sample.Forty-one percent of isolated LAB strains exhibited inhibitory ability against Listeria innocua in a plate assay.A majority of the inhibitory effects were non-bacteriocinogenic,but these lactic acid bacteria still had a competitive advantage for the storage of the sausage.