Coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) are frequently isolated from meat products. Among them, the species Staphylococcus xylosus and S. carnosus are used as meat starter cultures. In these products, nitrate and nitrite are added for the development of color. CNS contribute to this development through their nitrate reductase activity that reduces nitrate to nitrite. The chemical reduction of nitrite to nitric oxide (NO) leads to the formation of the stable bright red nitrosomyoglobin, the typical pigment of cured meat products. The safety regarding the use nitrite is questioned because it can react with secondary amines to form unwanted nitrosamines. Some bacteria can synthetize NO from arginine via the nitric oxide synthase (NOS). In all sequenced Staphylococcus genomes, the gene encoding NOS is present. We aimed to determine the role of NOS in S. xylosus. Then, we evaluated the diversity of NOS among CNS strains isolated from meat and assessed their potential to produce NO. A mutant strain deleted from nos (Δnos) was generated in S. xylosus C2a. The ability of this mutant to produce NO was evaluated by the conversion of metmyoglobin to nitrosomyoglobin followed by extraction of the nitrosoheme. In the Δnos mutant, nitrosoheme formation was sharply reduced under limited oxygen conditions, while it was abolished under aerobic conditions. The NOS sequences are highly conserved among the 5 targeted CNS species. A high diversity to form red myoglobin derivatives from metmyoglobin was observed between the species and within the strains. When nitrosoheme is formed, it was always in low amount. The main red myoglobin derivative formed by the strains was oxymyoglobin. This work has allowed to identify a NOS activity within S. xylosus and revealed the capacity of some CNS strains isolated from meat to form nitrosomyoglobin as well as oxmyoglobin.