Description:

The blood meal is made from a strict control of freshness and quality of the raw material (fresh bovine blood, free of foreign materials such as hair, digestive content, urine, etc.). In its manufacturing process, the spray drying system is used. This system consists of spraying the fresh blood in countercurrent with a flow of hot and dry air, which causes the dehydration of the blood.

Through this drying system, a product of the highest nutritional quality is obtained, since the destruction of heat-sensitive essential amino acids, such as lysine, is avoided. Basically, the spray drying system uses lower temperatures and exposure times of the raw material. In this way, the obtaining of a product with a very high bioavailability of Lysine and other essential amino acids is ensured, in comparison with the blood meals obtained through drying in rotating drums. Other comparative advantages are its low final moisture content (less unpleasant odor), absence of carbon particles and uniform granulometry. A well processed blood meal has almost twice as much lysine as fish meal and three times as much as soybean meal.

Properties:

Blood should be obtained under aseptic conditions, preferably by direct extraction. Later it is cooled to 5-10ºC. Blood clots quickly after being drawn. To avoid this, anticoagulants are used. The most widely used products at an industrial level are descaling agents (oxalates, citrates or polyphosphates). Desiccation and sterilization of blood can be done by various procedures. Traditional cooking (VAT method) resulted in a product that, although rich in protein, had low palatability and digestibility. Controls of the hygienic conditions of the blood meal were carried out to guarantee the absence of pathogens (salmonella, coliforms, staphylococcus aureus and clostridia).