Abstract: A disposable container with a hermetically sealed chamber in which perishable foods are stored is equipped with a removable closure and a brim or lip that rises above closure and is covered with insulating material that facilitates the direct consumption of a hot food product from the container. The brim surrounds a removable closure of the tear away top type. One embodiment has a recessed side wall portion located adjacent to closure end which is covered with insulating material to facilitate the manipulation of the container when the contents are heated. In another embodiment, the insulating material extends below the lip and the recess appears in the covering insulating material. The heat insulating material is all located at the upper end of the container and except for indicia imprinted on the side wall, the container is generally barren of overlay material below the recessed area to facilitate the heating of the contents.

Abstract: A method of forming a collagenous article comprising mixing a dispersion of collagenous material with an ester of alginic acid, forming the article, and rendering the mixture sufficiently alkaline for sufficiently long to set the mixture.

Abstract: There is provided a novel shirred and compressed tubular food casing, including a casing having a fibrous web embedded in the wall thereof, having a continuous barrier coating adhered to the surface thereof. A method for preparing said shirred casing comprises shirring a barrier coated tubular casing, said tubular casing having a moisture content of at least 10% by weight and said barrier coating exhibiting extensibility characteristics of at least about 4% at 32.degree. F.

Abstract: This invention relates to an improvement in a sheathed, hollow, cylindrical stick composed of a flexible tube folded by longitudinal shirring, the improvement comprising a cylindrical, flexible jacket means enveloping said stick and projecting over the ends thereof, parts of the projecting portions touching the end walls of said stick with their inner sides, annular disc means on said projecting portions, and said projecting portions being inverted outwardly around said disc means in a manner such that the inner walls, the end surfaces and the outer walls of said disc means are tightly covered, and said inverted portions being parallel to said jacket means and close to the exterior thereof. The invention also includes an embodiment wherein annular disc means are inserted inside the jacket means and adjacent to the end walls of the stick, the projecting portions of the jacket means are inverted around the annular disc means and clamping means are inserted in the opening of the annular disc means.

Abstract: A prepackaged shirred tubular casing article comprising a shirred casing length having a sizing means confined within an unshirred portion of said casing length, said sizing means having an outer perimeter larger than the inner perimeter of said unshirred casing length.

Abstract: The specification discloses a confection holding device having a central body with an annular surface and two rigid symmetrical elongate members integrally attached to and perpendicularly extending from opposite sides of the central body. The symmetry of the holding device allows it to be mechanically inserted in a conical container without regard to its orientation. The annular surface of the central body engages the inner walls of a conical container, defining an upper chamber into which a confection may be placed. The central body and the upper elongate member support the body of a confection when the conical container is removed. The lower elongate member is held by the consumer as a handle to support the confection during consumption.

Abstract: This invention relates to an improvement in a process for preparing reinforced, artificial sausage casings wherein a tubular porous web is passed through a die, impregnated with a polymeric dope, and the polymer regenerated. The improvement resides in employing a porous web having incorporated therein from about 25 to 500 ppm based on the dry weight of the porous web of an alkyl imidazoline ethoxylate of the formula ##EQU1## wherein R is a fatty acid radical having from 10 - 22 carbon atoms in the structure and x is a number from about 3 - 10.

Abstract: This invention relates to a tubular mold having excellent resistance to stretch. The mold is a "duplex type" flexible tubular mold comprising an outer film laminate comprising:A first film ply of cellophane having a saran film bonded to its outer and inner surfaces;A second film ply of biaxially oriented polypropylene having saran coatings bonded to its outer and inner surfaces, the film ply being bonded to the coated cellophane by an adhesive; andAn inner film laminate comprising a film ply of biaxially oriented polypropylene having a saran coating on both sides.

Abstract: A tubular casing for sausage, ham or like processed meat mass is coated internally with a water-soluble complex chromium compound with a view to improved peelability, among other purposes, of the casing from the meat mass encased therein. The complex chromium compound may first be diluted with water, with the pH of the resulting aqueous solution regulated as required by the addition of a slight amount of caustic soda or the like. The thus-prepared coating fluid is coated in a suitable fashion on the internal surface of the tubular meat casing, which may be either cellulosic or fibrous, and the coated casing is then dried as by hot drafts of air.

Abstract: A tubular cellulosic sausage casing such as a tubular fibrous casing particularly suitable for use with dry sausage such as Genoa salami has a coating bonded to the interior and exterior surfaces thereof of a cured cationic thermosetting resin. A tubular cellulosic sausage casing having at least about 0.45% by weight of said cured cationic thermosetting resin bonded to the surfaces of said casing exhibits resistance to degradation by cellulolytic enzymes.