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 (t reatment 1), while the right sides were aged without the skin (treatme nt 2). Another 20 carcasses were skinned, halved and cut into wholesal e 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 mor tem) were aged for either 2, 5, 12 and 19 days respectively (ca. 0 deg rees 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 ag eing period (> 12 days) vacuum packaging ensures that spoilage bacteri a are inhibited and that the Enterobacteriaceae group of bacteria do n ot increase (ca. 0 degrees C), while the results clearly show that thi s is not the case with the hung in air ageing treatments (1 and 2). (C ) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.