Animal blood valorization advances sustainable food innovation, offering high-quality proteins and bioactive compounds.

The global demand for sustainable food systems necessitates exploring underexploited resources. Animal blood, a significant by-product of the meat industry, is often discarded, representing a missed opportunity for circular bioeconomy strategies. Despite its rich composition of high-quality proteins, bioavailable haem iron, and various bioactive compounds, its potential for food and nutraceutical applications remains largely untapped. Current practices fall short in fully leveraging this resource, leading to waste and environmental concerns, while consumers seek more sustainable and nutritious food options.

This comprehensive review synthesized recent literature on the valorization of animal blood for food innovation. Researchers systematically examined the compositional characteristics of various blood fractions, detailing their intrinsic roles in key functional properties such as emulsifying, foaming, gelling, and water-binding. The review also critically assessed recent technological advancements, including enzymatic hydrolysis, membrane filtration, and sub-critical solvent extraction, which are crucial for improving the bioactivity, stability, and applicability of blood-derived ingredients. Furthermore, it explored emerging clean-label processing approaches and novel delivery platforms, alongside the significant food safety, regulatory, cultural, religious, and sensory challenges impeding broader adoption.

The review confirmed that animal blood is a highly valuable resource, rich in high-quality proteins and bioavailable haem iron, alongside various bioactive compounds. It detailed how different blood fractions contribute significantly to desirable functional properties in food matrices, including enhanced emulsification, foaming, gelling, and water-binding capabilities. Technological innovations, such as enzymatic hydrolysis and membrane filtration, were shown to substantially improve the bioactivity, stability, and overall applicability of blood-derived ingredients. These advancements enable effective protein enrichment, iron fortification, and improved oxidative stability in diverse food products. Emerging processing methods are expanding applications beyond traditional meat products, facilitating their integration into fortified foods and therapeutic nutrition. However, the review also underscored persistent barriers: > Broader adoption of blood-derived ingredients is significantly constrained by complex food safety, regulatory, cultural, religious, and sensory challenges that require innovative solutions.