Offal
Market

Every steer slaughtered generates, in addition to the carcass, a set of organs, viscera, and usable parts that are directed to human consumption, the food industry, the pet market, the pharmaceutical industry, and other industrial sectors.

According to the Regulation for the Industrial and Sanitary Inspection of Products of Animal Origin (RIISPOA), offal is defined as the organs and parts of slaughtered animals considered fit for human consumption by official veterinary inspection. In cattle, this includes the brain, tongue, heart, liver, kidneys, rumen, reticulum, omasum, tail, and feet (mocotó).

Depending on regional consumption habits or the requirements of importing countries, other parts may also be used, such as lungs, spleen, spinal cord, mammary gland, testicles, lips, cheeks, cartilage, and other parts covered by complementary standards, if they are not classified as risk materials.

Tripe products, on the other hand, are not classified as offal. This category includes the intestines, bladder, and other viscera used as natural casings for sausages after specific technical processing.

Parts that do not meet the requirements for human consumption also hold economic value and are mainly used to produce animal feed ingredients, fertilizers, and other industrial products.

Among these, the rumen stands out at 9.1 kg, the intestines at 9.0 kg, the reticulum at 4.8 kg, the liver at 4.7 kg, and the lungs at 2.2 kg. The remaining offal, including tail, tongue, heart, omasum, spleen, kidneys, testicles, brain, abomasum mucosa, throat, bladder, and spinal cord, each contributes a smaller share but together add up to 7.77 kg.

The commercial use of these products varies depending on the type of offal and the target market. Consumption for food purposes tends to be more closely tied to culture and culinary tradition than to lower prices compared to meat cuts.

For human consumption, liver is the most widely accepted item in Brazil, thanks to how easy it is to prepare, its competitive price, and its high nutritional value, being rich in protein, iron, vitamin A, and B vitamins. It is also often recommended in diets to treat anemia, although intake should be moderate due to its high cholesterol and vitamin A content.

Tongue is also well accepted among consumers, both in Brazil, used in sauces, preserves, and barbecues, and in several other countries, where it is a traditional ingredient in dishes across Mexico, the United States, France, Belgium, and Germany.

Heart is also widely used in cooking and can be easily found in supermarkets. It is valued for its high protein, iron, zinc, selenium, and coenzyme Q10, and is typically prepared as steaks or pot roasts, while increasingly finding its way onto barbecue menus.

Some offal items are tied to regional culture, such as mocotó (beef feet), traditional mainly in Brazil's Northeast and South, where it is part of local cuisine and, in some regions such as Rio Grande do Sul, is even eaten for breakfast. Its origins date back to slavery, when less valued parts of the animal were used for food, though today the dish is regarded as a regional delicacy.

Tail, used to prepare rabada (oxtail stew), also holds a prominent place in Brazilian cuisine, while dobradinha (tripe stew) and other offal-based dishes remain popular mainly in specific regions of the country.

In Asian markets, especially China, some offal items carry an even higher added value. Bovine pizzle, for example, is mostly sold in the pet segment as a chew treat but is considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine due to its ties to the country's traditional medicine.

Beyond direct consumption, offal is also used as raw material for processed meat products, if it meets the sanitary requirements set by RIISPOA. For this purpose, it must be free of fat, lymph nodes, glands, gallbladder, pericardial sac, cartilage, tendons, large blood vessels, clots, and other tissues unfit for consumption. On the other hand, intestines, tonsils, salivary glands, mammary glands, ovaries, spleen, and other structures defined by regulation cannot be used in the manufacture of meat products.

The use of offal also extends to other markets.

In the pet segment, heart, esophagus, trachea, and aorta are mainly sold as dehydrated natural treats or ingredients for natural diets, thanks to their high protein content and good palatability.

In the pharmaceutical and biomaterials industries, some organs carry high added value. Lung tissue is used to obtain heparin, an anticoagulant widely used in medicine. Bovine pericardium is used to manufacture biomaterials for cardiovascular surgery, while the pancreas provides raw material for pancreatin-based medications used in enzyme replacement therapy.

There are no records of offal imports, but Brazil is an exporter.

Hong Kong is the largest destination for Brazilian beef offal, accounting for around 1.7 million tons exported, a volume roughly 7.8 times higher than that imported by Ivory Coast, the second-largest buyer (figure 1).

Hong Kong's leadership is also linked to its role as a major re-export hub. As a free port, the territory facilitates trade with Mainland China and other Asian markets and is widely used as a distribution center offering access to different logistics routes.

Beyond this factor, Chinese demand also contributes to this scenario, since bovine offal holds strong cultural and gastronomic value in the country.

In traditional Chinese medicine, several organs are associated with health benefits, longevity, and beauty, which helps sustain part of this consumption.

In Japan, the extensive use of these parts is also linked to the concept of mottainai, which values making full use of food and fighting waste.

When it comes to inedible offal, export volume is lower compared to items intended for human consumption. Pancreas, used in pharmaceutical manufacturing, totaled around 4.0 thousand tons exported, with roughly 3.5 thousand tons going to South Africa. Sectioned pericardium, in turn, totaled around 15 tons exported in the same period, of which 10 tons went to Costa Rica.

All of this depends on strict compliance with sanitary protocols. RIISPOA establishes that offal can only be sold after approval by official veterinary inspection.

During slaughter, evisceration must preserve the correspondence between carcass and organs, allowing for proper post-mortem inspection. In this process, all organs undergo visual assessment, palpation, smell testing, and, when necessary, incisions. Organs with lesions or contamination may be condemned individually or, in cases of systemic involvement, result in condemnation of the whole carcass. The regulation also sets criteria for chilling, freezing, transport, and mandatory removal of Specified Risk Materials (SRM), as well as conditional treatments using cold, heat, or salting in specific situations.

As a result, the economic use of offal is directly tied to sanitary compliance and the proper allocation of each product.