A novel, Gram-positive, rod-shaped, motile, endospore-forming, halophilic bacterial strain, J18(T), was isolated from a traditional salt-fermented seafood made of gizzard shad in Korea. Colonies were convex, cream-coloured and 1.0-2.0 mm in diameter after incubation for 3 days on marine agar. Growth occurred at pH 7.0-11.0 (optimum, pH 10.0), at 4-40 °C (optimum, 37 °C) and in the presence of 0-30% NaCl (optimum, 9-10%). On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain J18(T) was related most closely to Virgibacillus byunsanensis ISL-24(T) (96.3% similarity), Virgibacillus carmonensis LMG 20964(T) (96.2%), Virgibacillus halodenitrificans DSM 10037(T) (96.0%), Virgibacillus arcticus Hal 1(T) (95.5%) and Virgibacillus necropolis LMG 19488(T) (95.5%). The major fatty acids were anteiso-C(15:0) and anteiso-C(17:0). The DNA G+C content of strain J18(T) was 37.0 mol%. The cell-wall peptidoglycan was of the meso-diaminopimelic acid type. The major quinone was menaquinone 7 (MK-7). Based on phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, strain J18(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Virgibacillus, for which the name Virgibacillus alimentarius sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is J18(T) (=KACC 14624(T) =JCM 16994(T)).