Bringing More South African Game Meat To Dinner Tables

Game meat is an often-prized, but scarce, protein source. According to independent meat safety consultant Dr Tertius Bergh, systems for improving the safety standards of processing game meat could ensure far more widespread consumption. Lloyd Phillips reports

South Africa’s Meat Safety Act, No. 40 of 2000, provides regulations for the safe handling of meat between producer and consumer for conventionally produced red meat, and for poultry, ostrich, game, crocodile and rabbit.

According to Dr Tertius Bergh, an independent meat safety consultant, while these regulations are intended to guide a particular industry’s activities to stay within the law, they can be difficult to understand and implement, and as such can hinder business growth.

“For the 19 years since the introduction of the Meat Safety Act, and as a result of a lack of clarifying explanations from government, most of South Africa’s game industry has had to interpret the relevant regulations itself,” Bergh says. “Unfortunately, what we’ve often seen on a large scale is poorly handled and poor-quality game meat coming out of the industry. This situation needs to be corrected urgently.”

FAST FACTS

•  South Africa has an abundance of game meat that could be marketed to national and international consumers.

•  Current cumbersome meat safety legislation is driving many game meat suppliers to market their products via illegal, and potentially unsafe, routes.

•  Commercial game production for meat is ideally suited to South Africa’s marginal agricultural lands.

AMENDMENTS NEEDED TO MEAT SAFETY ACT

Bergh believes that South Africa’s current Act needs to be rewritten to cater effectively for all animal types commonly consumed by people. This will be a major task, however, as the revised Act has to be prescriptive without stifling the industries. He points out that South Africa has approximately 13 000 game farms that at some time or another will each harvest a portion of their game.