| Summary: | <i>Lactobacillus</i> strains with the potential of protecting fresh dairy products from spoilage were studied. Metabolism and antifungal activity of different <i>L. plantarum</i>, <i>L. brevis</i>, and <i>L. sakei</i> strains, isolated from Sardinian dairy and meat products, were assessed. The metabolite fingerprint of each strain was obtained by GC-MS and data submitted to multivariate statistical analysis. The discriminant analysis correctly classified samples to the <i>Lactobacillus</i> species and indicated that, with respect to the other species, <i>L. plantarum</i> had higher levels of organic acids, while <i>L. brevis</i> and <i>L. sakei</i> showed higher levels of sugars than <i>L. plantarum</i>. Partial Least Square (PLS) regression correlated the GC-MS metabolites to the antifungal activity (<i>p</i> < 0.05) of <i>Lactobacillus</i> strains and indicated that organic acids and oleamide are positively related with this ability. Some of the metabolites identified in this study have been reported to possess health promoting proprieties. These overall results suggest that the GC-MS-based metabolomic approach is a useful tool for the characterization of <i>Lactobacillus</i> strains as biopreservatives.
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