From byproduct to premium food.
Around the world, some byproducts from slaughterhouses are considered delicacies. When it comes to pork, for instance, we source stomachs, rectums, cooked chitterlings, uteri, bladders, flower fat, feet and the aorta, while our Belgian sister company DTS and VH Spain are chicken MDM producers. Van Hessen ensures that these meat products reach their intended markets in the right condition. We guarantee quality and traceability by picking up fresh raw materials from slaughterhouses every day, collecting them at central points across the globe where they are processed and frozen immediately. Storage of finished goods occurs according to the highest standards. 

Our food-grade meat products are mainly sourced from our own company-operated gutrooms within slaughterhouses. Thus guaranteeing complete control over every step in the process.

Though we source our raw materials around the globe, our principle of operating locally for local markets ensures high quality standard around the world from beginning to end.

Many of our meat products find their way to the Asian, African, or European market, where they are part of people’s everyday nutrition.

Contributing to life-saving drugs.
Many important, even some life-saving medicines, are derived from animal byproducts and have been used this way for thousands of years. Today, our knowledge of what valuable substances animal organs contain has vastly increased and so have the sophisticated technologies to source them. An expert in extracting valuable substances in the most optimal condition, Van Hessen is continually developing new methods for higher yields, better quality, and new applications. Van Hessen, the only company in the world able to source and valorize mucosa and pancreas into active pharmaceutical ingredients, collaborates closely with its sister company Bioiberica in maintaining a robust supply chain. 

Mucosa, sourced from pork intestines, is used for the production of heparin, an anticoagulant (blood thinner) that saves millions of lives every year.

Cartilage, a soft bone harvested from bovine trachea, is used as raw material for chondroitin. This
drug helps improve joint health, benefiting those who suffer from arthritis. 

Pork pancreases are primarily sourced for their digestive properties and used for the production of medicines that treat various digestive problems.