New animal-derived ingredients

Traditionally, many meat by-products have been used for human consumption. Offals such as liver, kidney and heart are consumed directly after cooking. The preparation of sausages made from liver or containing significant amounts of blood is described by Hammer (1991). Liver is also used extensively in the production of pat6, while blood is used in the UK to prepare black pudding and as a functional ingredient in many European meat products. 

The composition of the meat by-products is in many cases similar to that of lean meat tissue. The approximate compositions of lean meat and some of the more common meat by-products are given in Table 2.1. Most 

Smith (ed.). Technology of Reduced-Additive Foods Chapman Hall 1993 

Increasingly, consumers are demanding foods that contain fewer artificial additives. Many plant-based ingredients are perceived as additives, and many are indeed modified by chemical or other means. There is, therefore, a large potential for the development of new animal-derived ingredients. 

The use of animal-derived ingredients in meat or other food product applications is often limited by variations in composition or functionality for example, they often contain high levels of pigment, which limits their usefulness. Flavour problems can also limit the use of animal-based ingredients in applications where a very light or bland flavour is required. 

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Chapter 2 was contributed by Paul Whitehead and Nick Church, both Senior Scientists with Leatherhead Food Research Association and Malcolm Knight, formerly of Leatherhead Food Research Association and now with Griffith Laboratories. They are at the forefront of meat research and have provided a review on new animal-derived ingredients. This includes meat surimi, fractionation of meat and blood and techniques for production of new ingredients. 

Traditionally, lead compounds have been discovered in one of two ways. The hrst is one of trial and error. This is the way many plant and animal products and minerals have been found to be effective in the treatment of some medical disorder. For example, no one knows when the hrst person learned that chewing on the bark of the willow tree [Salix alba) helped relieve pain and reduce fever, but willow bark has been used in many cultures for untold centuries for just that purpose. Today we know that the active ingredient in willow bark is a derivative of salicylic acid (CgH4(OH)COOH), which today is sold commercially as aspirin or one of its analogs. Drug researchers continue to rely heavily on the study of folk medicines—a science known as ethnopharmacology—for the discovery of new plant and animal products that may have medical applications in the modern world. Indeed, scientists have discovered that the medical... 

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