Carcass Characteristics of Red Sokoto Buck Goat as Affected by Singeing, Scalding and Skinning

A study on carcass characteristics of Red Sokoto (RS) Buck goat as affected by singeing, scalding and skinning was carried out. Twelve intact RS buck goats with an average live-weight of 18.00 + 0.65 Kg were allocated to these post-slaughter processing treatments. Parameters like temperature, pH, dressing percentage, wholesale cuts, Water Holding Capacity (WHC) among others, were taken. The experimental model was a Complete Randomized Design (CRD), while data generated were analyzed by the procedure of SAS (1999). Results from the study showed that singeing of RS goat meat significantly (P<0.05) elevated the internal temperature, initial pH and the WHC of the meat. Scalding significantly (P<0.05) increased the dressing percentage and wholesale cuts of the carcass. While skinning exerted significant (P<0.05) increase on the drip loss and cold loss of RS carcass Post-mortem. By this, it can be said that post-mortem handling of carcasses affects to a large extent the quality traits of the meat.