Abstract: In this study, the safety of traditional naturally fermented sour meat from four different regions was analyzed. Furthermore, Lactobacillus plantarum 120 (Lp-120), Saccharomyces cereviscerae 2018 (Sc-2018) and Staphylococcus xylosae 135 (Sx-135) were used as starter cultures. The effect of different starter on the safety of fermented sour meat was preliminarily investigated. The biogenic amine, nitrite and peroxide values of sour meat were detected by using HPLC, spectrophotometry and titration. The results showed that the total biogenic amine contents of Miaojia, Baogu, Rongjiang and Liping sour meat were 961.20, 4673.85, 3201.97 and 4687.37 mg·kg⁻¹, respectively. Except for Miaojia sour meat, the biogenic amine content of sour meat in other regions exceeded the limit of 1000 mg·kg⁻¹. In addition, the peroxide value of Baogu and Liping sour meat was up to 0.181 and 0.158 g·(100 g)⁻¹, respectively. However, the nitrite contents of four traditional sour meat were between 3.3~4.4 mg·kg⁻¹, which all within the limit standard. Furthermore, the contents of biogenic amine of sour meat inoculated with Lp-120, Sc-2018 and the mixture of starter cultures were significantly reduced. Moreover, the peroxide value of sour meat inoculated with Lp-120 and Sc-2018 was 0.0377 and 0.0433 g·(100 g)⁻¹, respectively, which was about 70% lower than that of Baogu and Liping sour meat. The nitrite content of the four inoculation groups (mixed starter cultures, Lp-120, Sc-2018 and Sx-135) was lower than that of the traditional fermentation group, and the Sc-2018 group was the lowest, reaching 2.129 mg·kg⁻¹. In addition, both inoculated sour meat and traditional sour meat had no microbial risk. In general, there were differences in the quality of traditional sour meat in different regions. The biogenic amine in Baogu, Rongjiang and Liping sour meat exceeded the standard. However, inoculated fermentation (mixed starter cultures, Lp-120, Sc-2018) could significantly improve the edible safety of sour meat.