Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
~ 133563~
Sausage Product In A Plain Collagen Foil With
Net-Like Surface Structure and
Process For Its Production
The present invention relates to a sausage, the filling of which is
enclosed by a casing formed from at least one plain collagen foil having edges
which overlap at the sides and with an outer surface structured as a net. The
invention also relates to a process for the production of such sausages.
It is known that cooked sausage (which may be heated by boiling
before eating, such as Vienna sausage) or uncooked sausage, encased in natural
gut, can also be enclosed in a net or be tied with yarn so that the gut casing
is essentially relieved of stresses created by the weight of the sausage and
the radial pressures which arise as the sausage is cooked or during curing.
Such sausages have an appropriately structured surface because natural gut is
very elastic and, from the internal pressures, it bulges outwards between the
threads of the net or yarn ties, to give a quilted appearance.
Today, synthetic sausage casings are frequently preferred over
natural gut casings because they offer many advantages including even strength
during processing, and the possibility of dispensing with a net. If,
nevertheless, a net is considered desirable for reasons of visual appeal,
synthetic sausage casings are somewhat less satisfactory because of their
inherent strength and the quilting effect is less pronounced. If one wishes
to use the elastic properties of, for example, typical collagen casings for
such sausages, difficulties occur in the production of suitably wide and thin,
flexible, tubular synthetic casings. It has been impossible to the present to
produce such sausage casings in the form of foil tubes, with a diameter of 60
mm or more and a thickness of less than 50 microns.
EP-A-0 175 173 describes how solid meat wares with continuous
surfaces, such as cooked ham, can be encased in a plain collagen foil and a
net. To date, however, those skilled in the art have not considered the use
of such plain collagen foils for encasing or packing sausage wares, in
particular cooked sausage or uncooked sausage enclosed in a net, since it had
been anticipated that such collagen foil with limited strength characte~istics
and prone to marked deterioration, particularly, when acted upon by moisture
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(because they have a very low wet strength) would burst when filled with
sausage meat. Such meat is of a pasty consistency with a comparatively high
water content and, unlike a portion of solid meat, has a broken surface formed
of fine, discrete particles. The possibility of bursting is particularly
Breat at those places where the collagen foil, which can be subjected to only
comparatively weak mechanical stresses, is not supported and reinforced by the
mesh of the enclosing tubular net. Such bursting, which is not particularly
troublesome for meat having an unbroken surface, would lead to the
comparatively watery sausage matter escaping at the damaged locations. The
ensuing loss of pressure leads to a general flattening of the quilted effect
on the foil.
Most surprisingly, however, it has been found that collagen foils of
this kind, such as have already been used to encase meat with a continuous
surface (cooked ham), can also be used to encase sausage products with a
content that is liquid or paste-like, without any increase in their thickness,
without the need to improve such mechanical properties as their bursting
strength, and without risk of damage to the product.
Proceeding from the prior art discussed above, here described is a
casing of plain, collagen foil for sausage wares, the contents (filling) of
which is of a paste-like or watery consistency, and which does not have a
continuous surface, in particular for sausage products which, in addition to
their casing, are also enclosed in a net, the collagen foil being satisfactory
for all the demands made of it without bursting during filling and subsequent
hot processing.
Thus, described is a sausage, whose filling is in a casing formed
from at least one plain collagen foil with side edges overlapping and with an
outer surface structured in the form of a net.
In one embodiment, the net-like structure that surrounds the sausage
is formed, preferably, from a tubular, textile net.
Plain, collagen foils are available with a wall thickness of less
than 20 microns. They exhibit sufficient strength for this application, with
good dilatability.
Suitable plain, collagen foils are already known. They are
described, for instance, in DE-PS 642 922. The collagen foils can be produced
using a foil-forming machine (DE-PS 842 825 and US-PS 2,747,228). Normal
PAT 12511-1
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widths are 0.38 and 0.57 m. The wall thickness amounts to 7 to 40 microns,
preferably 15 to 30 microns.
All cotton nets having rectangular, hexagonal, or rhomboid-shaped
meshes, such as are usual in the trade, are suitable as tubular textile
nets. It i8 preferred that such nets be used in which elastic threads are
incorporated in the peripheral direction.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the net-like
struc~ure can be impressed directly into the outer surface. Thus, here
described is also a sausage product in a plain collagen foil, in which the
net-like structure is permanently impressed into the outer surface.
In such an emhod~ -nt, the net structure is an integral part of
the surface of the sausage, the sausage having been encased in a net during
formation and processing which leaves an imprint of its presence on the
finished product.
This embodiment offers the advantage that the net is eliminated.
Surprisingly, only a brief deformation of the product surface is sufficient
to produce the net-like structure, the sausage filling being sub~ected to
thermal processing or to curing in which the filling coagulates, whilst the
deformation force is present. The action of the deforming force can be
removed thereafter.
The surface of the casing is permanently deformed and mirrors the
~tructure of the shaping housing (a wire basket is particularly suitable)
which effects the shaping function and exerts the nPcess~ry deforming forces
on the surface.
Described also is a process for producing sausage products of
this kind, wherein a casing of at least one plain collagen foil is formed
with side edges overlapping, the sausage filling being pressed into the
casing 80 formed, and a net-like surface applied to the outer surface of the
encased sausage.
Embod~ ^nt8 of the invention will now be described with reference
to the acc~ ponving drawings in which:
Figure 1 shows a view from the side of a new netted sausage
product in a thin collagen foil casing,
Figure 2 shows in exploded perspective view a wire basket used in
one embodiment of the invention,
Figure 3 is a foil wrapping and sausage filling apparatus,
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133~634
Figure 4 is the sausage filling apparatus of Figure 3 modified with
the wire basket of Figure 2,
Figure 5 is a view of part of the apparatus of Figure 4 at a
subsequent process step, and
Figure 6 is a side view of the finished sausage product from the
apparatus of Figures 4 and 5 after final treatment.
As illustrated in present Fi~ure 3, to fill the sausage products here
described an apparatus similar to that described in EP-A-O 175 173, Figures 7
and 8 can be used in which, however, in place of the support surface 29 there
is a rigid connection with the tube of a vacuum filler.
Using a modified filling apparatus of this kind it is possible to
fill sausages of all saleable sizes with diameters from 60 to 150 mm
if t;he combination of the tubes 24, 25 and 26 is of such a diameter that in
each instance the tube 26 is of n - ; na l calibre.
Once the foil 28, 33 has been drawn off the roll 31 supported in
brackets 30 on base 22 and threaded between the tubes 24, 25, when the edges
34 overlap each other, and a net 27 has been drawn onto the tube 24, the tube
26 i.s first filled until plump with sausage filling from the filler such that
it is free of air. Next, the foil and the net are pulled forward to the
extent that they can be tightened together and secured by a clip. The filling
phase can now start; during this phase, the sausage is filled with the
sausage-meat as a result of the filling pressure, while the foil and the net
are simultaneously being drawn from the apparatus. When suitably full and the
supply of filling has been interrupted, the casing is crimped and closed off
by a double-clip -chine~ The finished sausage is separated between the two
clips. The next sausage can i -~ately be filled using the end of the empty
casing which L. -in~ in the -chine and has been closed by the second clip.
Using this procedure, it is possible to fill cooked or uncooked
sausages that are subsequently to be further processed as is customary in the
trade, without the need to take particular care because of the thinness of the
coll.agen foil or because the long edges of the foil are only overlapped
without any solid connection by approximately 10 to 20 mm.
When finished, the sausages look extremely attractive and appetizing,
and have a "country-style" appearance (see Figure 1). The filling can be seen
very clearly because the thin collagen foil is almost completely transparent.
PAT 12511-l
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~ 133563~
The colour of the meat is not dulled by a whitish, opaque skin. The foil is
forced outwards between the mesh of the net by the pressure exerted during the
filling, making the surface look quilted. The height of the bulging above the
net structure is between 1 and 10 mm.
The net has to be removed before the sausage is sliced, and can be
done without difficulty, because there is no adhesion between the foil and the
net caused during the production process. In contrast it is neither possible
nor n~cess~ry to remove the thin foil from the sausage because, for all
practical purposes, the foil cannot be detected. In a cooked sausage for
boi]ing, the foil has the same characteristics as the soft gut casing used for
wieners. The collagen foil is an integral part of the food product, and is
intended to be eaten. To the present, for large uncooked and cooked boiling
sausages, it has not been possible to use a tubular collagen foil that is
meant to be consumed. To withstand the filling pressure, such a foil must be
of a ~ni thickness of 65 microns, and this thickness does not permit its
consumption with the sausage.
In practicing the present process, large uncooked and cooked sausages
can be produced economically in a net. They have an attractive, appetizing
"country-style" appearance.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to
dispense with the net in that the sausage encased in the collagen foil is
permanently impressed with a net-like surface structure. The net-like
structure is formed on the outer surface of the encased and filled sausage by
the action of a deforming force, and is pe. ^~tly fixed by the subsequent
heat processing or curing carried out to coagulate the filling, while the
deforming force is maintained. In this embodiment, it is preferred that a
wire basket be used in place of a net, which wire basket can be slipped over
the tube 24 of the filling apparatus.
Figure 2 shows a wire basket suitable for the procedure to be
described below. The cylinder is divided lengthways into two halves, 36 and
37. Both halves are pivotally connected to each other on one side by a hinge
38, and can be locked at the opposite side by quick-release fasteners 39. The
ends of the cylinder have removable covers 40, 41.
Figure 4 shows the apparatus of Figure 3 but with a wire basket ready
for filling. The foil 33 is drawn together in front of the output end 25, 26
PAT lZ511-1
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1335634
and optionally closed off by a clip 42. The open end of the wire
basket is slid over the tube 24 until the closed end abuts against the
tube 24.
The filling is now ejected through the tube 26 and starts to
fill the foil, which then lies against the inside of the wire basket
35. As filling proceeds, the wire basket is moved ahead by the
sausage filling. When the basket is completely filled, the filling
press is stopped and the material within the foil 33 between the
basket 35 and the tube 26 is advanced (Figure 5) in an axial direction
so that a double clip 43 can be installed. The quantity of filling is
so calculated that once the second cover 41 has been installed, the
wire basket is completely full.
Figure 5 shows the above-described apparatus, with a full
wire basket and the clips installed on the foil. Now, the sausage is
completely enclosed by foil, with the wire basket performing a
supporting and shaping function. The pattern of the wire mesh from
which the basket is made is formed on the surface, and the foil bulges
through the net mesh in a quilt-like fashion.
When the basket has been closed, the sausage can be
subjected to further processing in the usual manner. A boiling
sausage is first cured, then dried, smoked and, finally, cooked
(steeped). Uncooked sausage is also cured, optionally smoked, and
subsequently further cured for a period that can last from a few days
to several weeks.
Only when the processing is completed is the wire basket
opened and the finished sausage removed. By this time, the foil has
become bonded immovably with the filling whereas it acts as a release
agent from the wire basket and makes it simple to remove the sausage
from the basket.
Figure 6 shows a side view of the finished sausage product.
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