Botulism isn’t mold. Two different things requiring two different procedures to keep at bay.
Mold requires oxygen, moisture, and food in the proper temp range. The drier you go, the less likely for mold, but you’ll never get it dry enough to keep it totally gone. Vacuum packing will remove a lot of the oxygen, but again, never all of it.
Most of the commercially bought jerky will have been packaged in a gas flush packaging machine, where CO2 and/or N2 (I’m guessing CO2 for jerky) is used to purge the foil tube in the packaging step. This pushes the air (containing the O2) out. Now the package contents are inert and the mold won’t grow. Even a microscopic hole that is only detectable by throwing the package in a tank and pulling 15-20 inches of hG is enough to let the O2 back in. A machine to package this is $100k+, lots more + for what I have experience in.
Remove as much moisture. Remove as much oxygen. That’s all you can do. There is mold in the sir all around us. Throwing the jerky in a hot jar and letting it cool and pull a vacuum won’t remove the mold spores or the oxygen for it to grow. (I say that with ALMOST full confidence).
All well and good, but low oxygen environment plus any kind of moisture and fat leads to the risk of botulism without preservatives or refrigeration.
