It is the aim of the present commentary to justify the statement 'Transfusing to normal haemoglobin concentration will not improve outcome.' If we define normal haemoglobin as being greater than 115 g/l for women and greater than 125 g/l for men, then there is no evidence in the literature to justify maintaining such high concentrations by the use of RBC transfusions in any anaemic patient. There may, however, be some debate about adopting a transfusion threshold of 100 g/l, which is well below 'normal'. transfusion threshold would, obviously, reduce the number of allogeneic RBCs transfused. It is our goal to impress upon the reader that transfusing to a level equal to or greater than 100 g/l does not improve mortality and other clinically important outcomes in a critical care setting. We first explore the reasons why a reduction in the total number of allogeneic blood transfusions would be beneficial. Second, we examine the current evidence for using a lower transfusion strategy, specifically that employed in the Transfusion Requirements In Critical Care (TRICC) trial.