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From Fox News

Popular Russian candy bars made with secret ingredient: blood
By Rachelle Bergstein | New York Post

This creepy candy bar kept Soviet-era children fed � and it�s still �in the red.�

Hematogen � a chocolatey, chewy snack with an oddly metallic aftertaste � was the go-to snack for Russian kids before the fall of the Soviet Union. Made with beet sugar, condensed milk and sugar syrup, it�s also infused with a surprising secret ingredient: cow�s blood.

The popular nosh was created as a kid-friendly iron supplement. But while the label listed �black food albumin� � translation: blood � as an ingredient, most people didn�t know what they were eating, Munchies reports.

Alas, a generation of tots came to love the ubiquitous blood bars, which were cheaper and more accessible than candy. Now, these same Russian adults still have a soft spot for Hematogen � which is why it remains available to this day.

In fact, the twisted treat � it has the pliable texture of a Tootsie Roll � is still easier to find than one might think.

In addition to a horde of jumbo-pack options being sold on Amazon, �you can actually go out and buy it right now in New York,� at Russian specialty markets, says culture scholar Anastasia Lakhtikova, author of �Seasoned Socialism: Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life.�