Introduction: Inadequate intake of heme iron (HFe) is identified as the major cause of iron deficiency anemia. Objective: Preparation and characterization of heme iron-alginate beads. Methods: Spray-dried bovine blood cells (BB) were used as core, and sodium alginate (SA) solution at 1.5 %w/v as encapsulation material. The BB were characterized by chemical analysis. The HFe-alginate beads were prepared by ionic gelation method at different ratios: 2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 30% w/v BB/SA. The Fe content (cFe) and encapsulation efficiency (EE) were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry; morphology by optical microscopy and SEM; size and color were also assessed. Results: The chemical composition of BB was: moisture (2.6%), protein (90.3%), nitrogen-free extract (3.5%), ash (3.6%), and cFe (242.1 mg HFe/100g). cFe increased from 0.47±0.05 (2.5%) to 5.21±1.11 (30%) µg of HFe/bead. The EE was of 58%, 66%, 75%, 58%, and 63%, for each ratio, respectively. The beads showed spherical morphology was which tended to be more irregular at higher concentrations of HFe. The dried beads size (mm) was of 0.77±0.20 (2.5%), 0.93±0.24 (5%), 1.05±0.26 (10%), 1.28±0.32 (20%), and 1.49±0.38 (30%). The color varied from: L= 15.39± 0.54; a= 3.31±0.31; b= 2.08±0.54 (2.5% ratio) to L= 19.36± 2.34; a= 1.43±0.32; b= 0.95±0.51 (30% ratio). Conclusion: Through the encapsulation technology it was possible to obtain five ratios of HFe-alginate beads with high HFe content, where the 10% w/v proportion showed the highest encapsulation efficiency. These beads could be used as a vehicle for iron fortification.