He didn't really eat anything. In the scene from Hannibal that you're referring to, Lecter feeds the victim his own brains. So it's not Hopkins who eats the brains, but Ray Liotta. Lecter is no fool. He knows that eating brains is very dangerous. This can lead to a disease that Papuan cannibals call “kuru” (the human equivalent of “mad cow disease”). The character's brain was imitated using the brains of a sheep, and its pieces are banal chicken meat.
He didn't really eat anything. In the scene from Hannibal that you're referring to, Lecter feeds the victim his own brains. So it's not Hopkins who eats the brains, but Ray Liotta. Lecter is no fool. He knows that eating brains is very dangerous. This can lead to a disease that Papuan cannibals call “kuru” (the human equivalent of “mad cow disease”). The character's brain was imitated using the brains of a sheep, and its pieces are banal chicken meat.