The spoilage flora of vacuum-packaged, salted, cold-smoked rainbow trout fillets, with or without the addition of nitrate or nitrite, stored at 4 degrees C and 8 degrees C, was studied. Of 620 isolates, lactic acid bacteria were the major fraction (76%), predominating in all samples of spoiled product. However, the phenotypical tests used were insufficient to identify the lactic acid bacteria to the species level. Gram-positive, catalase-positive cocci, gram-negative, oxidase-negative rods and gram-negative, oxidase-positive rods were found in 6%, 16% and 2% of the samples, respectively. Of 39 gram-positive, catalase-positive cocci, 29 were identified as staphylococci and 10 as micrococci. Eighty-five isolates were found to belong to the family Enterobacteriaceae, with 45 of those being Serratia plymuthica. Eleven isolates from the nitrate treated samples stored at 8 degrees C were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The occurrence of P. aeruginosa and staphylococci in the nitrate-containing samples, stored at 8 degrees C, may cause problems with respect to the safety of the product. The types of lactic acid and other bacteria in the spoilage flora were generally reduced by the addition of nitrate or nitrite to fillets.