Irish researchers highlight potential of ‘waste’ blood

A Teagasc-UCC research team has highlighted the potential of slaughterhouse blood proteins as a high, added-value functional ingredient.

In 2001, it was estimated that only 30% of blood produced in slaughterhouses was used as food ingredient, mainly in black pudding and related products, according to Sarah Lynch, Anne Maria Mullen, and Carlos Alvarez Garcia of the Teagasc Food Research Centre, Food Quality and Sensory Science, Ashtown, Dublin, and Eileen O’Neill of the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College Cork.

They say use of blood in the food industry has increased, but there are no data to confirm this.