Blood-derived products for human consumption

Blood, the first by-product obtained after the slaughter of an animal, has long been used in European and Asian countries as an ingredient in traditional foods such as blood sausages, puddings, blood soups, breads and crackers (Mandal, Rao, Kowale, Pal, 1999). For many years US slaughter houses used to discard blood as an unwanted by-product (Halliday, 1973) but its high nutritional value, coupled with serious disposal issues, has fueled recent research and industrial efforts to incorporate blood proteins into a wide range of food products.