Handling and storage of Offals

Offals must be inspected for abnormalities and disease conditions prior to further handling. Blood, liver, trachea, oesophagus, spleen, brain, kidneys and fat should be collected under hygienic conditions. They should be used immediately or stored at 4-7 C in stainless steel containers. Blood should be transported within four to six hours for processing. Skin and hide should be transported within eight hours of collection. Pancreas and endocrine glands should be collected in ice and preserved under frozen conditions. Bones should be free of adhering flesh and dried Green bones should be broken, boiled, dried and stored at room temperature. The intestines and stomach should be cleaned in the unclean section of abattoir. 

Due to higher glycogen content and lesser fat covering, edible offals are pore perishable than carcass, therefore, it is essential to remove the edible offals soon after slaughter from the carcass, cooked and served preferably on the day of slaughter. High degree of care is to be taken to handle them to prevent contamination.

Carbon dioxide gas/dry ice accelerates chilling of offals . Freezing arrest the growth of organisms. vacuum packing double the refrigerated shelf life of organs like liver, kidneys  and heart. However it is advisable to utilize the organ meat  without delay .

In advisable to freeze the liver,heart,oxtail  and giblets for longer keeping quality. But care should be taken that these organs are thawed refrigerators. Similarly , sweetbreads and brains are also stored in frozen condition but thawing is done in hot water . For organs such as kidney ,tongue and tripe , it is advisable to use as fresh or within 24 hours of refrigeration. tongue may be smoked and refrigerated or pickled and refrigerated to use with in 3 days or 7 days  respectively. Giblets kept under refrigeration should be consumed with in 12 hours.   

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. 

Utilization of Offals- Edible and Inedible

"Offals" means everything from slaughter of an animal that is not directly sold as consumable meat. 'By-product' is synonymous to offals and is used for broader sense where as 'offals' is used for various visceral organs and parts other than carcass. Animal by-products utilization is important from economic as well as public health point of view. Industry that turns wastes to valuable products has to be , encouraged. An industry can run successfully when it utilizes both edible and inedible by-products of its factory. Just selling the meat is hardly profitable. It is said, profit comes by utilization of by-products as one of the major source of income.

When an animal is slaughtered, it provides meat with well balanced protein as a major source. The byproducts of the animal are more than 50 per cent which are edible and inedible and requires efficient processing and utilization. The byproducts may be calculated by deducting the dressing percentage of an animal from 100. The dressing percentage of various animals ranges from 45 to 70 per cent. 

The by-products of meat industry if not utilized properly, the income is lost and and Meat Inspection adds cost for its disposal about which you have read earlier. Fortunately all the integrated abattoir and meat processing plants in India are utilizing byproducts effectively. You will study the utilization of animal by-products in detail in course- BPVI.