Frequently
Asked
Questions
Where is my nearest Fruit Pig stockist?
We have more than 300 stockists nationally, so likely there’s one near you..
Check our stockists map.
Do you wholesale?
Yes. We sell direct to restaurants, cafes, butchers, delis and farm shops.
Drop us a message with your business name, location and phone number.
We'll send you our wholesale pack with info on ordering, prices, minimum quantities, shelflife, allergens - everything you need to get started.
Our most commonly asked questions.
Message us if your query is not answered below.
How does fresh blood black pudding taste compared with dried blood black puddings?
In our taste tests, dried blood black puddings can't hold a candle to the richness and texture of a fresh blood black pudding.
If you doubt us, simply put ours to the test.
That said, there are a few delicious dried blood varieties out there....but only a few!
Fresh blood collected locally delivers a product superior to one produced via mass collection, dehydration, packaging and sending out palletted bagged blood powder from a factory over 1,500 miles miles away. Ours is more sustainable, true farm-to-fork, the most food-mile-friendly black pudding you can buy on the internet.
Also, 98% of the ingredients are British, with just the spices coming from overseas.
If you are interested in learning more about the use of blood in traditional foods, we recommend listening to Tim Hayward, on BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme.
It’s a great listen. (Spoiler alert - we’re on it).
What’s the delivery charge for website orders?
Delivery is just £5, and free for orders over £90. We use APC Overnight, a nationally recognised food courier. With our insulated packaging and ice blocks, your Fruit Pig order arrives safe and sound. Read our delivery Terms & Conditions for more details.
You use fresh blood in your black puddings…why don’t all producers?
In the UK, we are almost alone in making a black pudding with fresh blood.
All the recognised producers we know of use imported dried blood powder, harvested from large factory units.
In fairness, these larger producers produce 10s of tonnes of black pudding each week, so there's probably not enough correctly harvested fresh pig's blood available.
As slaughtermen and butchers, we have access to fresh blood. We've also developed accurate procedures and equipment to harvest it.
Collecting the fresh blood for our black puddings isn’t easy, it’s a messy and dangerous environment.
No-one sets out in life to become a slaughterman!
Can I buy fresh blood from Fruit Pig?
No. We only have permission to collect and use the fresh blood ourselves. We cannot gift or sell fresh blood.
Can I pick up my order direct from you in Wisbech?
Yes. We don't have a shop, but we can accept pre-arranged visits for picking up Monday to Friday. All we ask is for you to email your order at least 3 working days days in advance and we'll sort out a pick-up plan.
We're at 6 Anglia Way, Wisbech. PE13 2TY, next door to Laker's Gym.
What3Words: nuzzling.caps.taps.
We can accept cash on pick up (exact money please) but prefer to email your invoice before pick-up and ask you make a bank transfer prior to collection.
How green are you?
Firstly, we make a fresh blood black pudding using what most abattoirs waste - their pig's blood. All other national producers use imported dried powdered blood. Our onions are fresh (rare again) and come from a factory on our doorstep. Our barley, oats and fat are all UK produced. That probably puts us at the top of the black pudding chart for food miles and sustainiabilty.
We have a contract with a local biotech company. Our waste food production is sent to their anaerobic digestion plant 9 miles away. There, it is processed into a liquid porridge, and then pumped into the anaerobic digestion plant. Bacteria feed on the food waste and produce biogas. The biogas is captured and used as a fuel in CHP engines or sent directly to the gas grid.
We have 120 x 430w solar panels on our roof which help reduce our external energy needs. These panels save 8000-9000kg of CO2 a year. Our current grid energy supplier is Total Engeries. Their energy source mix (21/22) is 50% renewable. All of our factory lighting (bar a single external night sodium) is LED.
What’s with the Fruit Pig name?
When we started out our pigs were fedloads of local fresh fruit and veg, including windfall apples and pears, and the company name came from there.
Are your products free range?
Short answer is sometimes, but read on if you really want to know facts. Did you know there is no legal definition for free range pork? It is generally accepted by the farming and food industry that free range for pigs means pigs spending their entire lives outdoors, with free access, at least to straw-filled arcs and outside fields. Our main product, fresh blood black pudding, is made from British pork fat and fresh blood collected by us in our local abattoir by us (we're qualified slaughter men). We are the ONLY manufacturer/producer in the UK who collect fresh blood for black pudding production. Some of the animals we collect from are free range, some are organic, some are outdoor stall and some are high welfare indoor pigs. We make over a 1,000 kilos of black pudding every week. The Fruit Pig business would not be viable if we only collected from free-range/organic pigs. The local, commercial farm used in our first video is high welfare and RSPCA authorised. The pigs are bred and grown in such a professional manner, the farm is antibiotic-free.
ALL the famous, national black pudding producers make their black pudding from imported dried blood powder which is harvested in huge, indoor pork factory units in Spain, The Netherlands and Denmark. None of them can be called free-range because of this.
We pride ourselves on playing with a straight bat. Free-range is not a simple yes or no. If you think it is, you do not know farming. In our time, we have visited so-called free-range farmers and have had to walk away as their ethics and standards were so poor. Conversely, there are many commercial outdoor stall and indoor breeders with great ethics and standards.
If you are confused about food labelling definitions: ‘outdoor reared’, ‘free-range’, ‘outdoor sired’ etc. Compassion in World Farming have an explainer for the definition minefield. Their food guide is an excellent place to start to unravel.
Are traditional breeds better than commercial breeds?
It's a matter of personal choice. Rare breeds weren’t rare years ago. As demand for meat increased after the Second World War, the faster-growing, easier processing strains of animals became popular for farmers catering for the baby boomer generation. Most modern commercial breeds tend to put on less fat and grow to cull weight faster than what are now considered their rare breed counterpart cousins..
Do you take overseas orders?
Short answer, no. Sadly, sending overseas post-Brexit is an admin nightmare (and too costly), so we've given up.
My order is due tomorrow, can I change some details?
Sadly, there’s no way to officially interact with the delivery driver’s manifest once we’ve actioned the courier note the day before. If you want the parcel left in a specific place, leave a note on your door for the APC driver. They will try and leave it anyway as this is our default procedure with APC. If you track your parcel, the delivery depot details come up, you could try contacting them direct.
I eat gluten-free. Tell me about your process.
Our gluten-free range is here. We only use UK-produced certified gluten-free oats, milled from a gluten-free mill. Each pallet of gluten-free oats comes with a gluten-free certificate. We store our gluten-free ingredients in a separate store. On process days, we produce gluten-free products first on clean hygiene-tested machinery. To prove our production processes, we gluten-free test our produce at least 4 times a year to less than 5ppm. The legal requirement is less than 20ppm. On top of that, we’re a SALSA-Approved facility which is anenhanced food safety standard revered with in the industry.