Abstract: An improved apparatus for decasing food links comprising an accelerator assembly imparting initial feedthrough velocity, a preconditioner that heats the casings to facilitate removal, a casing slitter assembly, a casing drive assembly, and a stripping head assembly featuring directed air jets and meshing gripping gears that pull the casings away from the links. The accelerator and driving assemblies cooperate to impart high velocity to the food links while minimizing product damage in a machine that assures complete operator safety. The casing slitter assembly provides a pivoting slitter head that accurately follows the shape of the food link, slitting the casing without damaging the food link. An adjustable guide assembly provides parallel axial alignment of the food links with the meshing gripping gears.