A numerical taxonomic study of non-motile non-fermentative gram-negative bacteria from foods.

A numerical taxonomic study using 155 unit characters was performed on 63 strains of Gram-negative non-motile non-fermentative bacteria isolated from proteinaceous foods. Similar bacteria from other sources and several Pseudomonas strains from meat were included for reference purposes. Three clusters were observed at 76% S which contained all the food strains. Cluster 1 was composed entirely of Acinetobacter strains including 17 isolated from foods that were provisionally identified with Acinetobacter johnsonii. Cluster 2 contained 22 strains identified as Psychrobacter immobilis, of which 20 were from food. Cluster 3 contained all the Pseudomonas reference strains and 26 non-motile strains isolated from meat. These were shown to be non-motile variants of Pseudomonas fragi. A simple identification scheme, based on five tests, is presented for the distinction of the three types of bacteria.