Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Hollow or container type article – Flexible food casing
Reexamination Certificate
1997-05-14
2002-05-28
Pyon, Harold (Department: 1772)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Hollow or container type article
Flexible food casing
C138S118100, C264S188000, C452S027000, C206S802000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06395356
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to improved food packaging films, and more specifically, to food casings having modified release/cling properties for packaging meat products. The food casings may be fiber reinforced or unreinforced and may be used to package both wet and dry meat products.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the manufacture of processed sausage products, a meat emulsion is prepared from comminuted meat together with fillers, seasonings, spices, etc. A tubular food casing, such as one containing nonedible cellulose, is loaded onto the stuffing horn of a filling machine and stuffed with the meat emulsion. In the case of small sausage products, like frankfurters, the filled casings are twisted, tied or clipped into suitable links at predetermined intervals and further processed. For larger sausage products, like bologna, salami, and the like, the meat emulsion is introduced into larger heavier walled casings or casings having fibrous reinforcements, and formed into chubs or lengthy individual sausage sticks or logs for further processing, e.g., cooking and smoking.
One category of larger meat products includes the so-called dry or semi-dry sausages, sometimes referred to as cervelats or summer sausage, which includes such representative examples as air dried pepperoni, soft salami, hard or dry salami, and the like. As the name suggests, this type of sausage has a reduced moisture content, and its preparation usually includes drying as one step in its manufacture. Dry sausage can also have a lower fat content than other types of sausage products, and depending on the particular type, may also be smoked. Cooking can also be performed in some instances during the smoking step.
Food casings employed in packaging and processing dry or semi-dry sausage products are usually fibrous type casings consisting of a fibrous reinforcement in the form of a web, usually a paper, formed and seamed into a tubular body, impregnated with viscose solution and regenerated in situ. Because the encased meat mass of dry or semi-dry sausage products undergo shrinkage during processing and drying, dry sausage casings preferably have an affinity for the encased meat mass. That is, unless the dry sausage casing adheres to the meat mass during processing and drying, separation between the meat mass and the sidewall of the casing occurs which increases the potential for mold growth, and a final product having an unappetizing appearance. Such products not only have poor customer acceptance, but can also have shorter shelf-life expectancies.
To help overcome the foregoing separation problem with dry/semi-dry sausage products, fibrous regenerated cellulose casings have been developed with polymeric coatings consisting of thermosetting resins to enhance the cling or adherence properties between the meat mass and the inner side wall of the casing. One such example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,379, which teaches a dry fibrous sausage casing having a cationic thermosetting resin coating on the casing surface in contact with the packaged meat.
While the coated casing of U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,379, may be useful in allowing the passage of moisture from the meat mass during drying, ingress of smoke to the meat during smoking, and adherence to the meat mass as the meat shrinks due to loss of moisture, such casings and methods of manufacture have not been entirely satisfactory for all types of dry and semi-dry sausage products. In this regard, it was found that dry sausage type fibrous casings, including the type of casings coated according to the methods of U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,379, with cationic thermosetting resins, can exhibit excessively high cling characteristics, and cannot be readily used with all types of dry sausage recipes because of an imbalance between cling/adherence and release properties. Furthermore, the cling of such casing varies with the amount of moisture in the sausage product.
For example, certain dry sausage recipes, like dipped style products favored by many Europeans require partial removal of casing by meat processors during the latter stages of preparation after cooking and drying. For this to readily occur, the dry sausage casing must have a sufficiently low level of cling to permit easy manual peeling of the casing from the meat mass without damaging the product. In preparing dipped style dry sausage the casing is entirely removed, except for the end portion holding the support string or metal end-closure cap for suspending the product during the final stages of processing. The remaining unpeeled casing end must continue to adhere to the meat mass for support and prevent falling to the floor during the final stages of processing, e.g., dipping into gelatin and condiments, e.g., pepper, cheese, roasted onions, etc. Hence, for such dry sausage recipes packaging films/casings require a balance of both cling/adherence properties and release characteristics. Too much cling and not enough release will make manual peeling a slow, arduous task for high production efficiency. Whereas, too high release and not enough cling will make the dipping process difficult to perform. It would further be desirable if the cling/adherence of such casings were constant regardless of the amount of residual moisture in the sausage product.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,379 discloses methods for enhancing the cling properties of dry sausage casing by applying internal coatings of cationic thermosetting resin by the known “slugging” or “bubble” technique. Following impregnation of the fibrous tubular web with viscose solution by drawing through an annular die; regeneration of the casing and passage through a glycerin/water bath, an aqueous solution of the thermosetting resin is introduced through a cut in the casing by known methods, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,379, which resin is maintained between rolls of the coating station. The regenerated casing is continuously drawn between the rolls where the interior wall of the casing is automatically coated with the resin solution. Squeeze rolls remove excess resin from collecting on the casing interior wall. Following coating, the casing is drawn through a drying chamber where it is inflated by a bubble of air and dried.
While the bubble technique may be widely practiced in applying release/cling coatings to casing surfaces, it has several short-comings. The bubble method is dependent on many process variables making it difficult to achieve product uniformity and quality control. This is due to such variables as rate of casing travel; initial concentration of the coating solution; rate of exhaustion and depletion of resin from the coating solution; amount of pressure applied by the squeeze rolls, etc. Such factors determine the amount of resin with which the inner wall of the casing will be coated and the frequency with which the coating composition will require replenishing. Liquid transfer from tanks can also dilute the bubble in standard operations. Because the resin in solution between the rolls is constantly being depleted from the casing interior the coating being applied lacks uniformity and produces a “two side effect”, i.e., different meat cling over the circumference of the casing. The bubble method of coating can also result in “roping” and “carry over” of the casing where multiple folds of casing prevent removal of chemicals.
In order to avoid the above described problems, it has been suggested that certain resins could be incorporated into viscose used to form the casing either by extruding the resin containing viscose in the form of a tubular film or by impregnating a tubular fiber reinforcement with the resin containing viscose. Such a method and product is described in European Patent Application 0.635.211, published Jan. 25, 1995, which is the equivalent of copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/096,320, filed Jul. 23, 1993, from which priority is claimed. While the method described in European Patent Application 0.635.211 was an improvement over prior methods for controlling adhesion to meat product within a food casing, d
Borgers Luc
Wielockx Pierre
Dunn Michael L.
Hon Sow-Fun
Pyon Harold
Teepak Properties, LLC
LandOfFree
Food casings having modified release properties and methods... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Food casings having modified release properties and methods..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Food casings having modified release properties and methods... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2867290