Rhodotorula
Also known as Red yeast, Pink yeast
A pink-pigmented environmental yeast that reads as spoilage, discolouring meat surfaces and brines rather than ripening them.
Rhodotorula, its name built on the Greek for red, carries carotenoid pigments that show as a pink or coral film. Unlike Debaryomyces and the other ripening yeasts, it is an environmental organism rather than a technological one, and on a meat surface or in a neglected brine its bloom is not a sign of good maturation but of spoilage: an unwanted discolouration.
For the curesmith it is therefore a fault to prevent rather than a flora to encourage. Its appearance points to lapses in hygiene or to a damp, stagnant, poorly controlled surface, and the remedy is the usual one, clean handling, sound raw material, and a surface kept in check by controlled humidity, airflow and a strong desirable flora that leaves no room for it.