Offal is the entrails and internal organs of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of organs, but includes most internal organs other than muscles or bones. In many parts of the United States these portions of the animal tend to be considered "waste parts", although there are U.S. recipes which include chitterlings, hog maw, etc. The parts that constitute offal vary with time, place and cultural tradition. Many items classified as offal are considered to be delicacies, and command a high price, in many places: tongue, sweetbreads, calf's liver, etc.

Offal may be used for human consumption, or, often after processing in a rendering plant, for animal feed or fertilizer. In some parts of Europe, brain, chitterlings or andouillettes (pig's large intestine), feet or trotters, gizzard (bird's crop), heart, head (of pigs or calves), kidney, liver, lights (lung), sweetbreads (thymus or pancreas), tongue and tripe (stomach lining) from various mammals are common menu items.

The traditional Scottish haggis consists of sheep stomach stuffed with a boiled mix of liver, heart, lungs, rolled oats and other ingredients. In the UK Midlands faggots are made from ground or minced pig offal (mainly liver and cheek), bread, herbs and onion wrapped in pig's caul.

In some Latin American countries, cow stomach or intestine is used to make menudo, chinchulines or tripas; in others, like Peru, cow heart is used for anticuchos - a sort of brochettes.

In China many more organs and animal-parts are used for food or medicine.

In the United States offal is less often used for human consumption; when it is used, the euphemism "variety meats" is generally used. When offal is included as an ingredient in animal feed, it is listed under the name "meat byproducts", one of a number of ingredients that may be so listed.

Certain organs are unsafe to consume. Polar bear liver is so high in vitamin A that it can have a toxic effect on human metabolism. Animal intestines may be very high in coliform bacteria and need to be washed and cooked thoroughly to be safe for eating. Other offal (especially nervous tissue) may be contaminated with TSE prions; in some jurisdictions these offal classified as specified risk materials are subject to special regulations.

Offal is usually very high in purines. People suffering from gout must avoid offal in their diet.

In American English, the words offal and awful are virtually homonyms—one dictionary shows the pronunciation of awful as being the same as the most-frequent pronunciation of offal—a fact which offers opportunity for puns.

See also

• Fried-brain sandwich
• Echinococcosis
• Larousse Gastronomique

External links

• Pronunciation of offal (http://www.bartleby.com/61/70/O0037000.html)
• Pronunciation of awful (http://www.bartleby.com/61/28/A0552800.html)