Influence of aging treatment on the bacterial quality of South African springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis marsupialis) wholesale cuts

The left sides of 20 springbok carcasses were aged with the skin on (treatment 1), while the right sides were aged without the skin (treatment 2). Another 20 carcasses were skinned, halved and cut into wholesale cuts. The loin and leg cuts from the right sides were deboned before vacuum packaging (treatment 3), while the loin and leg cuts from the left sides were vacuum packed with the bone in (treatment 4). All the carcass sides (36 h post mortem) and vacuum packed cuts (36 h post mortem) were aged for either 2, 5, 12 and 19 days respectively (ca. 0°C). The examined groups of bacteria indicate that, for an ageing period of 12 days or less, vacuum packaging does not have an advantage over the hung in air method. However, when considering an extended ageing period (> 12 days) vacuum packaging ensures that spoilage bacteria are inhibited and that the Enterobacteriaceae group of bacteria do not increase (ca. 0°C), while the results clearly show that this is not the case with the hung in air ageing treatments (1 and 2).