Classification of offals

There are various basis of classification of offals such as their use, appearance etc. On the basis of utility as human food the offals are classified as edible or inedible. However, this depends on socioeconomic conditions of the consumers. For example, the head, feet, and blood are utilized as food by some people while many others do not consider these by-products as edible. Another basis of classification is appearance. The Red offal includes head, heart, liver, lungs, melt (spleen), sweetbreads, tail, thick skirt (diaphragm) and tongue. The White offals are fats, many plies (third stomach), set of guts and bladder, set of tripe (weasand, first, second and fourth stomach and rectum), fore feet and trimmings. Blood, hides and pharmaceuticals are usually considered as a separate category. 

The English Food standards committee have separated offal into two categories: 

List A: Items which may be used in cooked or uncooked products from mammalian species contain tissues such as diaphragm (skirt, cattle only), head meat (ox cheek, cattle only), heart, kidney, liver, pancreas (sweetbreads), tail meat (oxtail, skinned, cattle only), thymus (sweetbreads, cattle and sheep only), and tongue and avian parts such as heart and liver (giblets, when gizzard and neck are included). 

List B: Items which may not be used in uncooked products contain portions of the mammalian species such as blood, blood plasma, brains, feet (cow heel, cattle only; sheep trotters, sheep only; pig trotters, pig only), large intestines (chitterlings, pigs only), small intestines, lungs (lites), oesophagus meat, rectum, spinal cord, stomach (non-ruminant), first stomach (tripe, after cooking), second stomach (tripe, after cooking), fourth stomach, testicles (lamb fries, lamb only), udder and parts of avian species such as gizzard (giblets, when the heart and liver are also included) and neck.