Poultry Blood Preservation and the Impactof Preservation on Flocculant Activity

Abstract

<abstract><title><italic>Abstract.</italic></title> Chicken blood is an attractive but problematic raw material for the production of biobased flocculants. Blood begins to degrade as soon as it is collected – it rapidly coagulates, and at longer time scales, the red blood cells lyse and microbial growth results in hydrogen sulfide production. This study investigated the extent to which these types of degradation can be limited by inexpensive chemical treatments, under non-sterile, non-refrigerated conditions. It is shown that while the anticoagulants potassium citrate and potassium oxalate are effective under refrigerated conditions, at ambient temperatures they can only prevent coagulation for about one day. The effectiveness of potassium EDTA, on the other hand, is not as temperature dependent and can prevent coagulation for at least four days at ambient temperature. Similarly, blood treated with oxalate or citrate produces dangerous amounts of hydrogen sulfide, but blood treated with EDTA produces significantly less of the toxic gas. Anticoagulated blood does undergo some red blood cell lysis under the conditions investigated, and a method for limiting this lysis is proposed. Finally, it is shown that chicken blood preserved with EDTA can be held in non-refrigerated, non-sterile conditions for at least four days without sacrificing the effectiveness of the flocculant made from the blood.