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South Africa has been producing biltong for many years and its popularity is increasing locally and internationally. Biltong is commonly grouped with other dried meat products from around the world, but with its unique production method and expanding economic value, an increase in knowledge on the subject is in high demand. In this paper, biltong processing and quality are reviewed to highlight areas in which knowledge is still lacking. It shows that biltong processing varies resulting in the wide physico-chemical characteristics reported in the literature. However, consumer preference is still an area that lacks scientific data/evidence. Previous research on biltong has focused on the pathogenic microorganisms and not on its spoilage and shelf-life. Moreover, the effects of the various processing methods on the physico-chemical characteristics and resulting microbial stability has not been investigated. Knowledge of these could enable an increase in the quality of biltong.

Biltong is a RTE shelf stable salted/dried meat product stored under ambient conditions. The effect of vinegar addition during salting, weight loss during drying and packaging (modified atmosphere and vacuum) on the physicochemical and microbiological properties of beef biltong over a 3 months storage at 25°C was investigated. Biltong dried to ~50% weight loss had a moisture content of ~50 g/100g, salt content of 7.49 g/100 g and water activity >0.81 whilst biltong dried to 65% weight loss had a moisture content of 30 g/100g, salt content of 7.14 g/100 g and water activity <0.78. Packaging method had no effect. Vinegar decreased the pH of biltong to 4.91, delayed the growth of total viable counts and reduced the coliforms count but not the yeasts and moulds. Escherichia coli was below the detection limit of 1 log cfu/g, Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes were absent and Staphylococcus aureus counts were less than 1.3 log cfu/g.

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The addition of rooibos extract (RBE) (0%, 0.25%, 0.50%, 1.0% RBE) to improve the oxidative stability of blesbok, springbok and fallow deer droëwors (dried sausage) was studied. RBE treatments had no effects (p more than 0.05) on the lipid and protein oxidation of the dried product. With the addition of RBE 0.25%, lipid stability after drying showed the malonaldehydes decreased considerably. Haem-iron concentration increased after drying and differed (p less than 0.05) between RBE treatments within the dried stage within species. There were no differences (p more than 0.05) between the moisture, protein and fat contents between treatments within a specific processing stage. With the high polyunsaturated fatty acid content of the sausages, a high level of oxidation occurred. Even though RBE addition did not reduce oxidation significantly during the drying process, it could be a successful addition to the traditional South African meat product if it is shown to impart positive flavour attributes.