THE texture was good, it looked tasty, there was a nice hint of spice... and if Gwen hadn't have spent all day cooking it, she'd probably never have guessed the sausage she was eating had been made from human blood.

She'd even invited one of her friends over to try the meaty dish, and served it up at a candlelit table with a side salad and a gourmet-style bloody drizzle. They both agreed: too much soy sauce, but otherwise delicious.

16 Last month, Gwen decided to have a (totally legal) taste of cannibalism by making sausages from her own blood Credit: Gwen Van der Zwan

Last month Gwen van der Zwan, from the Netherlands, tried cannibalism for the first time.

However, she's no Hannibal Lecter and no humans were hurt in the making of her dinner.

Instead, she made the meal from her own blood - which she had painstakingly drained into a medical bag that day - after becoming fascinated with the idea of trying a human sausage.

"Why is my idea considered disgusting, but doing the same thing with pigs' blood isn't?" she asked at the time.

16 The sausage was served with a drizzle of her own blood, as well as a little bit of salad Credit: Gwen Van der Zwan

Cannibal chef 'artist' Arturs Bērziņš cuts human flesh off two people and then feeds it back to them in controversial performance

'37-year-old male seeks cute piece of meat'

Although she's rare in acting publicly on her unusual tastes, Gwen is far from the only one to be fascinated by cannibalism.

Dating-style fetish sites match up those desperate for human flesh with those who want nothing more than to be eaten alive themselves.

"Cannibal seeks meal," one post reads. "This 37 year old male seeks a nice cute piece of meat. I prefer girls."

Another says: "I'm a thirty-something man looking for a female so we can sample each other's flesh. Cut together, cook together, and eat together. Non-lethal cuts so we can enjoy eating one another."

16 Silence of the Lambs villain Hannibal Lecter is known for his macabre cravings for human flesh Credit: Channel 5

16 A prominent cannibal forum features posts which users say are totally genuine

Would-be victims refer to themselves as "longpigs" - a term meaning human flesh which was used by man-eating Pacific islanders who thought people tasted like pork.

But why would anyone want to eat, or be eaten by, someone else?

Experts say that cannibalism is largely to do with power - breaking the 'ultimate taboo' leaves man-eaters feeling euphoric.

Therapist Karen Hylen has even suggested that cannibalism can become addictive for a small number of people with psychopathic tendencies, comparing the act of eating someone to a cocaine high.

16 Some forum users refer to themselves as 'longpigs' - a term used to mean human meat

On Reddit, a growing number of posters chat openly about their fascination with cannibalism, although comments seem to often be driven more by a morbid curiosity than anything else.

16 After a motorbike accident, one man decided to cook and eat a fillet taken from his amputated foot Credit: Chris Murphy

Bill Schutt, author of Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, ate a human placenta when writing his book.

He told Sun Online: "We think cannibalism is revolting because that's what our culture dictates.

"Other cultures that didn’t get that memo have had very different attitudes toward cannibalism.

"For example, in the mid-20th century, the Wari people of Brazil were apparently just as upset to find that Western anthropologists buried their dead as the anthropologists were aghast to learn that the Wari ate their loved ones after they died."

The man who served his friends foot tacos

In June last year, a 38-year-old man took to Reddit to share the story (verified by Vice) of a dinner party where his friends tucked into a meal made from his amputated foot.

After a motorbike accident in 2016, he had the smashed limb cut off - and doctors let him keep it.

Then, three weeks later, he threw a brunch for ten willing friends where the main course was tacos made from the flesh which had been amputated.

The anonymous man posted photos of the dish, and explained how he kept his mangled foot in the freezer until it was time to cook it.

16 The amputee chopped up the meat and fried it with a lime drizzle Credit: Chris Murphy

16 The meaty tacos reportedly tasted good, despite being made from an amputated foot Credit: Chris Murphy

Then he cut out a chunk of flesh, marinated it overnight and sauteed it with onions, peppers and lime juice.

Posting on Reddit, he says: "I taste like buffalo. But chewier. Super beefy and a little fat. We weren't looking to go all Hannibal and get gourmet - just to make it so no one gagged."

16 The cooked meat reportedly tasted like a very chewy bit of buffalo Credit: Chris Murphy

16 Although you cant consent to being eaten, its legal to cook and eat your own meat Credit: Chris Murphy

"My friends and I always had this joke," he adds. "If you could try human flesh in an ethical and healthy way, would you? And we always said of course. Well the opportunity came up and I called them on it.

"It was a neat experience, and I wouldn't change it."

16 The finished meal was served to his friends in tacos Credit: Chris Murphy

'Cannibal' teen Austin Harrouff accused of killing couple and eating man's face breaks down in Dr Phil interview

Is cannibalism legal? As Nottingham Trent legal expert Samantha Pegg tells Sun Online: "Cannibalism itself is not a crime. "Obviously if you kill someone to eat them then the appropriate offence would be murder. There could be liability for unlawfully preventing a burial or outraging public decency if a desecrated body was publicly exposed or eaten in public. "But we couldn't criminalise the eating of human flesh as most of us consume bits of our own bodies, like nibbling your own fingers for example." So although eating human flesh isn't strictly illegal, "consenting" cannibal arrangements can stray into dark territory. Samantha says: "The law sets limits on what you can lawfully consent to. So, for example, you couldn't consent to someone chopping off your finger to consume it. "In the UK you certainly couldn't consent to being killed to be eaten. "Where we have seen cases of cannibalism in English law these have been charged as murder."

'What would my mum think of my blood sausage?'

In Gwen's case, it all started because she had been thinking about how her friends would react if she really made a dish from her own bodily fluid - so last month she got online and ordered a set of needles and a blood bag.

A couple of days and a few YouTube tutorials later, she punctured the skin on the inside of her elbow and started filling a bag with half a litre of her blood.

Listening to the sounds of blood splashing into the bag, Gwen wondered: "What would my mom think if she saw me sitting in my living room like this?"

16 Gwen extracted a bagful of blood to make her human sausage Credit: Gwen Van der Zwan

Once she had extracted half a litre of her own blood from her now weak and purple-looking arm, she removed the needle - accidentally squirting a few droplets onto the carpet.

Then, with the help of a close, not-too-squeamish friend, Gwen mixed lentils, tomato puree, soy sauce, and herbs into a filling and sloshed in almost the entire bag of blood.

"The kitchen looked like a slaughterhouse," she jokes in a Munchies article.

Amazingly, many of Gwen's friends were eager to try her creation, which she served up, MasterChef style, on white plates with a bloody jus.

16 She emptied the bag into a mixing bowl with the other sausage ingredients Credit: Gwen Van der Zwan

"We cut happily into the sausages and chewed on them as if we were judges on a cooking show," she writes.

"The texture was very good and the level of spiciness was perfect. Unfortunately I went a bit heavy on the soy sauce, so the sausage is a bit salty. Not bad, though."

16 Gwen wrote that her kitchen looked like a slaughterhouse when she was done Credit: Gwen Van der Zwan

The computer geek who ate a willing victim's penis

However, not all would-be cannibals are so easily satisfied with just a bite of blood sausage.

An alarming number of online posts feature requests for victims willing to be eaten alive to satisfy cannibalistic sexual desires.

The forum which hosts hundreds of these posts is the evolution of Cannibal Cafe, a now-defunct website for cannibals seeking the same.

Supposedly, the message board is for fetishists who want to role play as man-eaters, but we know from a high-profile case on Cannibal Cafe that some users were deadly serious about eating someone they met online.

16 Cannibal IT technician Armin Meiwes met a willing victim through the Cannibal Cafe site Credit: EPA

German IT technician Armin Meiwes was among the unknown number of legitimate cannibals lurking on the site.

In the most notorious case of cannibalism this century, he posted: "looking for a well-built 18 to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed."

Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes, an engineer from Berlin, answered his advert in March 2001, stating that he was willing to be killed and eaten.

A few days later, the pair met in Meiwes' home in the small town of Rotenburg and filmed a video where Meiwes cut off and ate Brandes penis, with his consent.

As Brandes bled to death, Meiwes fried the penis in a pan with salt, pepper, wine and garlic.

He later stabbed his victim in the throat and hung his body on the meat hook.

16 Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes volunteered to be eaten by the cannibal Credit: AP:Associated Press

He ate the remains over the following ten months, hiding body parts in his freezer and eating up to 44 pounds of human flesh - all for the supposed sexual pleasure of it.

The cannibal wasn't arrested until 2002, when another ad he posted online was brought to the attention of the authorities.

Even though his victim had agreed to being killed and eaten, he was eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Most read in news HAPPY MEAL McDonald’s worker pays customer’s bill after he calls mum to ask for her order Exclusive HAPPY MEAL McDonald’s worker who paid for lad’s meal has secretly bought food for MONTHS HERE WE SNOW! Leeds hit by SNOW as temps plummet to -5 as Brits brace for 65mph gusts today Breaking 'BIG FRIENDLY BEAR' First pics of sergeant shot dead at police station as pals pay tribute COP SLAIN Suspect who shot cop dead at station during covid check 'known to terror police' Breaking BOMBER ALERT US B-52 bomber 'sends distress signal' after mid-air emergency in Gloucs

Today, Meiwes is a vegetarian and says he regrets his crime, but he estimates that there could still be as many as 800 active cannibals in Germany alone.

As for the number of cannibals elsewhere, experts say it's impossible to guess.