grinner
08-06-2004, 06:15 PM
Mmmmmm, tasty
Eat your heart out, Dracula - scientists turn blood into biscuits and chocolate
By Karyn Miller, Chris Stephen and Michael Mainville
(Filed: 01/08/2004)
It has always been the staple and highly nutritious food of vampires even if a diet consisting entirely of blood could hardly be considered balanced. But now scientists have found a way of turning it into biscuits, yoghurts and drinks.
Ludmilla Antipova and Alexei Nikolaichik of Voronezh State Academy
The scientists, from the Voronezh State Technological Academy in Russia, say that mass production could begin in six months. They also say that their blood-based foods taste as good as the real thing.
Dr Ludmila Antipova, the head of the academy's Department of Meat and Meat Products, said: 'When we were first working on the project we had 16 students involved, and the main problem was that they would keep eating the experiments.
'People should not be apprehensive. When you eat meat, there is blood in that.'
Dr Antipova and her team decided to find a way to use blood 12 years ago after learning that a local meat plant discarded up to seven tons of it daily.
This week, The Telegraph visited their laboratories. There, staff presented a snack - 'chocolate'-filled biscuits and a vanilla-flavoured 'yoghurt' drink.
The 'chocolate' filling was made from cow blood cells, sugar and chocolate flavouring. The 'yoghurt' drink contained no dairy products, but was plasma extracted from cow blood and treated with bacteria to give a creamy appearance, with sugar, preservatives and flavourings.
The products looked and tasted like chocolate biscuits and vanilla milkshake, it was impossible to tell that either contained blood. They were delicious.
Blood has long been used to make black pudding, but for this new range of foods it is separated into its components: red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma.
The plasma is used to make yoghurt and fermented drinks.
The recipe for dairy yoghurt is followed: plasma is substituted for the milk and heated. Bacterial cultures are added to it, and a yoghurt-type substance forms.
To make chocolate, a paste of red blood cells is exposed to oxygen to turn it brown. It is then substituted for the cocoa butter or vegetable fats with which chocolate is usually made. Coffee drinks are made using a similar method.
The processed food industry has been identified as a potential market because the blood products are up to five times less expensive to manufacture than their dairy equivalents.
The products contain virtually no fat, and red blood cells are a rich source of iron. Yoghurt made with plasma contains up to twice as much protein as dairy yoghurt.
It is not yet clear whether the food products will go on sale in Britain.
A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency said: 'It is quite difficult to say anything at present without knowing a lot more about these products. This is a whole new territory for us.'
She said that the foods would be tested and assessed before they were allowed to go on sale in Britain.
Eric Dickinson, a professor of food colloids at the University of Leeds, said: 'It doesn't sound implausible. Blood is a cheap, under-used source of protein.'
Representatives from the British food and drink industry expressed doubts about the popularity of food made from blood, however.
Maurice Walton, the executive director of the Society of Dairy Technology, which represents dairy workers, said: 'I don't think that these products would take off here in the UK. Consumers would be fearful and distrustful. There would be worries about BSE and other diseases.'
Dr Antipova accepted that consumer reaction could pose a challenge: 'You don't have to say that it is a blood product - you can say that the product contains blood materials.'
Austen Davies, a black pudding producer from Cumbria, was bemused by all the fuss. 'I wouldn't be put off in the slightest,' he said.
'Blood is a life force - of course it's good for you. 'No part of an animal's body is a less valid source of nutrition than another.'
no link as BC emailed this to me. :D
Eat your heart out, Dracula - scientists turn blood into biscuits and chocolate
By Karyn Miller, Chris Stephen and Michael Mainville
(Filed: 01/08/2004)
It has always been the staple and highly nutritious food of vampires even if a diet consisting entirely of blood could hardly be considered balanced. But now scientists have found a way of turning it into biscuits, yoghurts and drinks.
Ludmilla Antipova and Alexei Nikolaichik of Voronezh State Academy
The scientists, from the Voronezh State Technological Academy in Russia, say that mass production could begin in six months. They also say that their blood-based foods taste as good as the real thing.
Dr Ludmila Antipova, the head of the academy's Department of Meat and Meat Products, said: 'When we were first working on the project we had 16 students involved, and the main problem was that they would keep eating the experiments.
'People should not be apprehensive. When you eat meat, there is blood in that.'
Dr Antipova and her team decided to find a way to use blood 12 years ago after learning that a local meat plant discarded up to seven tons of it daily.
This week, The Telegraph visited their laboratories. There, staff presented a snack - 'chocolate'-filled biscuits and a vanilla-flavoured 'yoghurt' drink.
The 'chocolate' filling was made from cow blood cells, sugar and chocolate flavouring. The 'yoghurt' drink contained no dairy products, but was plasma extracted from cow blood and treated with bacteria to give a creamy appearance, with sugar, preservatives and flavourings.
The products looked and tasted like chocolate biscuits and vanilla milkshake, it was impossible to tell that either contained blood. They were delicious.
Blood has long been used to make black pudding, but for this new range of foods it is separated into its components: red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma.
The plasma is used to make yoghurt and fermented drinks.
The recipe for dairy yoghurt is followed: plasma is substituted for the milk and heated. Bacterial cultures are added to it, and a yoghurt-type substance forms.
To make chocolate, a paste of red blood cells is exposed to oxygen to turn it brown. It is then substituted for the cocoa butter or vegetable fats with which chocolate is usually made. Coffee drinks are made using a similar method.
The processed food industry has been identified as a potential market because the blood products are up to five times less expensive to manufacture than their dairy equivalents.
The products contain virtually no fat, and red blood cells are a rich source of iron. Yoghurt made with plasma contains up to twice as much protein as dairy yoghurt.
It is not yet clear whether the food products will go on sale in Britain.
A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency said: 'It is quite difficult to say anything at present without knowing a lot more about these products. This is a whole new territory for us.'
She said that the foods would be tested and assessed before they were allowed to go on sale in Britain.
Eric Dickinson, a professor of food colloids at the University of Leeds, said: 'It doesn't sound implausible. Blood is a cheap, under-used source of protein.'
Representatives from the British food and drink industry expressed doubts about the popularity of food made from blood, however.
Maurice Walton, the executive director of the Society of Dairy Technology, which represents dairy workers, said: 'I don't think that these products would take off here in the UK. Consumers would be fearful and distrustful. There would be worries about BSE and other diseases.'
Dr Antipova accepted that consumer reaction could pose a challenge: 'You don't have to say that it is a blood product - you can say that the product contains blood materials.'
Austen Davies, a black pudding producer from Cumbria, was bemused by all the fuss. 'I wouldn't be put off in the slightest,' he said.
'Blood is a life force - of course it's good for you. 'No part of an animal's body is a less valid source of nutrition than another.'
no link as BC emailed this to me. :D