Functional properties of isolated porcine blood proteins

The isolated proteins contained in the blood from slaughterhouses could be recovered and used to improve the functional and nutritional properties of food products. In this work some functional properties, namely solubility, emulsifying capacity, gelling and foaming capacity have been tested for different protein fractions of porcine blood. The blood proteins studied were globins (alpha, beta and gamma), albumin and fibrinogen and the whole plasma from the plasmatic fraction, and haemoglobin and globin obtained from the haemoglobin by a chemical method from the cellular fraction. The effect of pH and protein concentration on functional properties was determined. Results indicate that blood proteins present good functional properties specially solubility, gellation and emulsifying capacities that could make blood protein useful as food additives in the formulation of food products.