The objective of this study was to isolate and identify microorganisms capable of producing antimicrobial com-pounds from Northeast China soybean paste and to analyse their antimicrobial capacity.The results showed that a total of 44 strains with antibacterial activity were isolated,mainly Bacillus spp.Of these,Bacillus velezensis R2 was identified as capable of inhibiting the growth of six foodborne pathogenic bacteria,with a broad spectrum of bacterial inhibition.Additionally,non-ribosomal lipopeptides encoding bacillomycin D,fengycin,flagellin,iturin A,bacilysin,surfactin,and the protein class TasA were amplified from B.velezensis R2.The functional,phenotypic and safety-related characteriza-tion of B.velezensis R2 revealed that it was non-hemolytic,sensitive to 10 antibiotics,and possessed protease,amy-lase,cellulase,and pectinase activities.This study aims to provide a reference for the high-value utilization of low-salt fermentation microbial resources of sauces.