Quantify Baseline value of Australian Collagen market relative to new and emerging global opportunities to increase collagen value

Summary

Blood represents a sizable and underutilized co-product of red meat processing. There are, for example, 18 litres of blood per head of cattle on average, which contains very high quality and functional proteins. Such functionality is valued in the food and related industries but, across Australia less than 5% of abattoir blood is collected for value adding and most goes to rendering with a net value of only around 2 cents per litre.

An aim of the co-products program was to develop new and more accessible applications for blood in food and feed products. As cost of manufacture is more significant in such applications, new processing technologies are also being developed to provide competitive advantage to Australian processor - value adders.  

Research

UNSW.2007 - Restructured meat using bovine plasma protein (1995). This project was initiated with the aim of demonstrating the value-added potential of blood fractions, produced and often wasted, by Australian abattoirs.

The specific strategy chosen was to demonstrate the potential bovine plasma protein had in its ability to produce a commercial product which could have consumer acceptance. Essentially this was achieved, in that the ability to make meat adhere together and reform into what could be considered a more tender and shaped portion piece of meat, differing from hamburger, in that the meat fractions are larger.