Game and venison – meat for the modern consumer

Abstract

This review focuses on how game meat from southern Africa and venison that are increasingly being imported into Europe and the US addresses consumer issues as pertaining to production (wild, free range or intensive production) and harvesting methods, healthiness (chemical composition, particularly fatty acid composition), and traceability. Although African game meat species are farmed extensively, deer species are farmed using extensive to intensive production systems. However, the increasingly intensive production of the cervids and the accompanying practices associated with this (castration, velvetting, feeding of balanced diets, etc.) may have a negative impact in the near future on the consumer's perception of these animals. These alternative meat species are all harvested in a sustainable manner using acceptable methods. All these species have very low muscle fat contents consisting predominantly of structural lipid components (phospholipid and cholesterol) that have high proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids. This results in the meat having desirable polyunsaturated:saturated and n-6:n-3 fatty acid ratios. The South African traceability system is discussed briefly as an example on how these exporting countries are able to address the requirements pertaining to the import of meat as stipulated by the European Economic Community.

Characterization of meat from two game birds: thrush (Turdus philomelos) and turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) Caracterización de la carne de dos aves de caza: zorzal (Turdus philomelos) y tórtola (Streptopelia turtur)

“…This content is higher than those reported in wild duck breast meat (Cobos et al, 2000), other wild animals (Hoffman & Wiklund, 2006;Polak et al, 2008), farm pigeons (Dal Bosco et al, 2005) and chickens (De Marchi et al, 2005;Wattanachant et al, 2004), as all of them show values between 0.25 and 2.50%. In fact, the content in thrush breast meat is even higher than in birds fed diets enriched with n-3 fatty acids (Ajuyah, Hardin, Cheung, & Sim, 1992;Cherian, Li, & Sim, 1995;Meyner et al, 1999;Schiavone et al, 2004).…”

“…Game is distinguished by the characteristic texture, taste and color of its meat, which differs from poultry and farmyard animals; it is normally darker, presents a stronger taste, and is often tougher, depending to the age and type of animal (Cobos, De La Hoz, Cambero, & Ordo´n˜ez, 1995). Moreover, the meat from wild animals has a good nutritional value due to its low muscle fat content and its high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (Cobos, Veiga, & Dı´az, 2000;Cobos et al, 1995;Hoffman & Wiklund, 2006;Polak, Rajar, Gasperlin, & Zlender, 2008). However, the research about the quality of meat from wild animals is mainly on mammals (rabbit, hare, deer, etc.).…”

Improving food security and safety through use of edible by-products from wild game

“…South African game meat has been exported for almost a century and is popular in Europe (Field 2004;Patterson and Khosa 2005;Mostert and Hoffman 2007;La Neve et al 2008). It is estimated that in 2005, South Africa exported the deboned meat of 160,000 game animal carcasses (Hoffman and Wiklund 2006). Moreover, up to US$ 130 million is generated annually by international trophy hunters visiting the country (Hutton and Leader-Williams 2003;Damm 2005).…”

“…1). There is little published data on the scope and magnitude of Carruthers (2008) utilisation of game meat in South Africa (Barnett 2000;Damm 2005;Hoffman et al 2004;Hoffman and Wiklund 2006;Carruthers 2008). Game animals hunted for meat are shot in the field during the colder months (the ''designated hunting season''), subject to hunters obtaining shooting permits (Gill 2007;Paulsen et al 2011).…”

“…Game meat from wild ungulates is consumed widely and was a traditional source of meat in Africa for both settlers and indigenous peoples (Hoffman and Wiklund 2006). Legislation to protect wildlife from poaching excludes the rural poor from direct wildlife utilisation (Kepe 1997).…”