Forming Edible Packaging Material, E.g., Casing, Etc. Patents (Class 426/277)
  • Patent number: 5741529
    Abstract: An adjustable reaction tub for making tubular cellulosic casings from viscose, the tub having upper rollers mounted to a frame and lower rollers on a roll support mounted to the same frame for adjustable positioning of the lower rollers at any of a range of depths within the tub.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 1996
    Date of Patent: April 21, 1998
    Assignee: Alfacel s.a.
    Inventor: Alan D. Stall
  • Patent number: 5695800
    Abstract: Disclosed is a food product encased in a water insoluble film of glucomannan and a method for its manufacture. In the process an aqueous solution of glucomannan is cast onto the food product surface and then is deacetylated and coagulated in sire by contact with a saturated salt solution having either an acidic or basic pH. The coagulated solution is cured and dried in the presence of salt and subsequently washed and further dried to provide the water insoluble film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 1996
    Date of Patent: December 9, 1997
    Assignee: Viskase Corporation
    Inventor: Frederick Maynard Merritt, II
  • Patent number: 5554401
    Abstract: A wet edible collagen casing, having a moisture content of 50 to 90% by weight, which has been formed and cross-linked, and is packed in its wet state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 1995
    Date of Patent: September 10, 1996
    Assignee: Devro Limited
    Inventors: Graeme Y. Alexander, Trevor F. Morgan, Gerald P. Fitzpatrick
  • Patent number: 5501886
    Abstract: A cellulose hydrate-based flat or tubular film which is useful as a food casing, particularly preferably as a sausage casing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 26, 1996
    Assignee: Hoechst Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Klaus-Dieter Hammer, Manfred Siebrecht, Leo Mans, Theo Krams, Hermann Winter
  • Patent number: 5405664
    Abstract: This invention relates to a multilayer organochlorine-free tubular casing consiting ofa. a regenerated cellulose substrate,b. optionally a layer of primer,c. a 5 to 40 .mu.m thick, organochlorine-free polymeric water vapor barrier layer which is characterized in that it has a permeability to water vapor of at most 50 g/m.sup.2.24 h and a surface tension.ltoreq.34 mN/m,d. a 5 to 40 .mu.m thick, polymeric organochlorine-free oxygen barrier layer, characterized in that it has a permeability to oxygen of at most 120 cm.sup.3 /m.sup.2.24 h bar and a surface tension of.gtoreq.38 N/m.The invention also relates to its use as a casing for sausages of the Kochwurst and Bruhwurst type.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 11, 1995
    Assignee: Wolff Walsrode AG
    Inventors: Kirkor Sirinyan, Hanns-Peter Muller, Rolf Dhein, Gunter Weber, Sebastian Meyer-Stork, Michael Stiem
  • Patent number: 5118519
    Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for processing batter materials, such as food batter, including sausage batter for wieners and the like, without incorporating the use of any casing for the batter. An elongated ribbon or flow of proteinaceous batter material is extruded or otherwise formed and treated to have a proteinaceous skin made by congealing surface batter materials with a treating arrangement. This flow is then severed into a plurality of blanks, followed by forming unfinished ends of the blanks into shaped links. The shaped links are then cooked and typically packaged as desired to provide a finished sausage product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 1991
    Date of Patent: June 2, 1992
    Assignee: Oscar Mayer Foods Corporation
    Inventors: Timothy G. Mally, Gary A. Handel, Nilang Patel, Dean F. Schwarz
  • Patent number: 4615889
    Abstract: A collagen sausage casing having improved clarity and weeping properties and a method of making the casing is disclosed. The casing contains from 50 to 80% by weight of bovine collagen and from 20 to 50% by weight of an acidified brine extracted pork skin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1985
    Date of Patent: October 7, 1986
    Assignee: Devro, Inc.
    Inventors: Mou-Ying Fu Lu, Larry L. Hood
  • Patent number: 4582710
    Abstract: A process for manufacturing an edible food product includes making a mixture of sodium alginate, sodium caseinate and carrageenan, and adding this mixture to water at a temperature high enough to bring about substantially complete dissolution. The resultant slurry is spread as a film on a surface, and heated to cause partial drying. The film is then contacted by a solution of calcium chloride so that sodium atoms in the film are replaced by calcium atoms, thus adding strength to the film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 1985
    Date of Patent: April 15, 1986
    Assignee: The Governors of the University of Alberta
    Inventors: Buncha Ooraikul, Nathan Y. Aboagye
  • Patent number: 4533358
    Abstract: A process for producing a shaped product of collagen by a wet or electrochemical method from a pasty composition comprising a collagenous substance or a mixture thereof with another high molecular substance. The composition or a product shaped therefrom is treated with a crosslinking agent, and the shaped product is frozen, and thawed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 1984
    Date of Patent: August 6, 1985
    Assignee: Nitta Gelatin Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshimasa Yoden, Tsuneo Okuda, Eiji Fuchigami, Toshihiro Kuwabara
  • Patent number: 4526580
    Abstract: A process of preparing a collagen gel to be extruded into a collagen sausage casing of improved clarity or translucency is disclosed. The process comprises the treatment of buffered hide corium with a solution containing 2% to 5% glycerine, 0.5% to 3% hydrogen peroxide and from 25 to 70 parts per million of ferrous ion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 1983
    Date of Patent: July 2, 1985
    Assignee: Devro, Inc.
    Inventor: Hubert B. Crooks
  • Patent number: 4476072
    Abstract: Shaped articles in thin-walled form, such as threads, membranes, sheets and tubes and particularly material for encasing sausage, are produced from a shapable mass containing in aqueous dispersion at least one coagulable, amphoteric high molecular organic substance, such as collagen or other coagulable animal protein, by extruding the mass through a die into an aqueous bath in which coagulation of such substance in the extrudate is effected by changing the pH of the dispersion so that the isoelectric point of the substance is traversed, the dispersion being prepared with a sufficient content of polyvalent ions, such as calcium ions, to inhibit formation in the extrudate of a barrier to ion penetration. The dispersion desirably also contains an agent for cross-linking the coagulable substance in the extrudate. The mass fed to the extruding die preferably is a collagen paste containing glyoxal and calcium ions. The speed of the coagulation can be enhanced by subjecting the extrudate in the bath to a D.C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 1982
    Date of Patent: October 9, 1984
    Assignee: Vaessen-Schoemaker Holding B.V.
    Inventor: Everardus J. Ariens
  • Patent number: 4404229
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for the production of molded meat or meat-like products, for example sausages. The surface of the product is treated with a fluid, which could be for coloring or flavoring purposes, but is advantageously e.g. an edible acid adapted to react with protein in the product to form a cohesive surface and enable the use of a separate skin to be avoided. The mold includes a permeable wall, for example of sintered stainless steel, through which the fluid can be introduced. In a preferred embodiment the wall is defined by a hollow cylinder disposed in a non permeable housing containing the fluid. An end cap closes one end of the cylinder and a plunger compresses the material to form the product. At the same time additional fluid is injected through a nozzle into the housing, to cause a corresponding quantity of fluid to pass through the cylinder wall and treat the surface of the product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 1981
    Date of Patent: September 13, 1983
    Assignee: Tivet Developments Ltd.
    Inventor: Timothy J. M. Treharne
  • Patent number: 4369189
    Abstract: Novel unsymmetrical formamidine-sulfenylated carbamate compounds exhibit broad-spectrum insecticidal, miticidal and nematocidal activity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 1980
    Date of Patent: January 18, 1983
    Assignee: Union Carbide Corporation
    Inventor: Themistocles D. J. D'Silva
  • Patent number: 4356201
    Abstract: Edible wreath shaped food casings are produced by a blow-extrusion method in which the inflated extruded tube is fed onto a series of rotating carrier elements whose peripheral velocity is the same as the rate of discharge of the tube from the extrusion nozzle. The carrier elements may be shaped in a variety of ways but the extruded tube is always led onto the first one tangentially. Lifting guides ensure proper transfer of the tube from one carrier element to the next. The method permits the production of thin-walled casings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 1980
    Date of Patent: October 26, 1982
    Assignee: Naturin-Werk Becker & Co.
    Inventor: Bruno Winkler
  • Patent number: 4233329
    Abstract: In a process for producing a tubular collagen casing from a hide collagen source which comprises the steps of comminuting said collagen and forming a slurry, swelling said collagen with acid, then extruding, coagulating, tanning, and drying, the improvement which comprises the steps of substantially completely swelling collagen, in which the epidermal layer and hair has been removed, with a relatively concentrated weak non-toxic acid having a dissociation constant in water of from about 1.times.10.sup.-6 to about 1.times.10.sup.-3, e.g., lactic acid, citric acid, etc., for a time sufficient to effect substantial swelling of the collagen and then comminuting the collagen for forming a slurry. An advantageous feature of this improvement is that it permits forming desirable collagen casing from a collagen source obtained from a hide which has been subjected to substantial liming.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 1976
    Date of Patent: November 11, 1980
    Assignee: Tee-Pak, Inc.
    Inventor: Noel I. Burke
  • Patent number: 4226264
    Abstract: Highly elastic films, filaments, and shaped articles can be prepared from amylose by forming a dispersion or solution of amylose in an appropriate liquid vehicle under conditions in which the molecular conformation of amylose is substantially helical, then forming a shaped article, film, or filament from the dispersion or solution and finally crosslinking the amylose with a crosslinking agent, the crosslinking agent being present in a proportion for providing an average of about 1 crosslink per 500 amylose monomer units to about 1 crosslink per 10 amylose monomer units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 1975
    Date of Patent: October 7, 1980
    Assignee: Teepak, Inc.
    Inventor: Douglas J. Bridgeford
  • Patent number: 4196223
    Abstract: After curing pig skins with hydrochloric acid, they are ground and then homogenized to a gel. The gel is extruded into a coagulating and tanning bath containing glutaraldehyde in a saturated sodium chloride solution to obtain a coagulated and tanned casing which is thereafter passed into a plasticizing bath containing glycerol and an oxidizing agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 1978
    Date of Patent: April 1, 1980
    Assignee: Wilson Foods Corporation
    Inventor: Joseph L. Shank
  • Patent number: 4115594
    Abstract: The extrudable collagen mass of the present invention includes polyoxyethylene sorbitan ester. The additive must be incorporated prior to extrusion of the casing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 1977
    Date of Patent: September 19, 1978
    Assignee: Union Carbide Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas Engel Higgins, Camilla Brems Ross, Henry John Snella
  • Patent number: 4110479
    Abstract: An improved method of preparing shaped collagen structures is provided wherein a shaped collagen structure such as a tubular food casing is treated with a dewatering solution comprising at least about 0.01% by weight of sodium alginate prior to the drying thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 1977
    Date of Patent: August 29, 1978
    Assignee: Union Carbide Corporation
    Inventor: Thomas E. Higgins
  • Patent number: 4096283
    Abstract: Method of compacting freeze-dried particulate foods comprising partially freeze-vacuum-dehydrating a food in particulate form to an average moisture content of about 10-35 percent, irradiating the frozen partially freeze-vacuum-dehydrated food with microwaves to rapidly distribute the remaining mositure from the frozen cores of the food particle throughout the food and thereby to uniformly plasticize the food, compressing the irradiated food to from about 5 to about 50 percent of its volume prior to compression, and thereafter redehydrating the compressed food to from about 1 to about 5 percent moisture content. The food particles may be either uncooked or cooked prior to partial freeze-vacuum-dehydration thereof, but will preferably be uncooked in the case of a vegetable and cooked in the case of a meat. The final redehydrated, compacted food mass may be hermetically sealed in moisture-impermeable containers to impart long-term storage stability thereto.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 1976
    Date of Patent: June 20, 1978
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
    Inventor: Abdul R. Rahman
  • Patent number: 4081562
    Abstract: Edible wreath shaped food casings are produced by a blow-extrusion method in which the inflated extruded tube is fed onto a series of rotating carrier elements whose peripheral velocity is the same as the rate of discharge of the tube from the extrusion nozzle. The carrier elements may be shaped in a variety of ways but the extruded tube is always led onto the first one tangentially. Lifting guides ensure proper transfer of the tube from one carrier element to the next. The method permits the production of thin-walled casings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 1976
    Date of Patent: March 28, 1978
    Assignee: Naturin-Werk Becker & Co.
    Inventor: Bruno Winkler
  • Patent number: 4061786
    Abstract: Dyed edible food casings, e.g., sausage casings, are produced by applying an edible dye to an edible carrier therefor, fixing the dye on the carrier by use of a protein, and admixing the carrier with an edible casing material to form an extrudable composition. That composition is then used for production of the casing by extrusion. The dye can be a water soluble dye, a fat soluble but water insoluble dye, or a water insoluble, alkali soluble dye.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 1976
    Date of Patent: December 6, 1977
    Assignee: Naturin-Werk Becker & Co.
    Inventors: Bruno Winkler, Bernd Mangei, Dieter Fritz
  • Patent number: 4061787
    Abstract: A homogeneous, formable collagen composition having uniformly incorporated therein at least about 0.5% by weight up to about 15% by weight based on the solids content thereof of a crosslinking agent selected from the group consisting of unsaturated fatty acids having more than two double bonds, di and tri-fatty acid esters of a polyhydric alcohol and unsaturated fatty acids having more than two double bonds, natural oils containing fatty acid esters with at least 11% by weight of the fatty acid residues thereof having more than two double bonds, fatty acid esters of an unsaturated fatty acid and an unsaturated fatty alcohol, and mixtures of the same, said collagen compositions being formable into shaped collagen structures that exhibit improved strength characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 1976
    Date of Patent: December 6, 1977
    Assignee: Union Carbide Corporation
    Inventor: Thomas Engel Higgins
  • Patent number: 4038438
    Abstract: A method for coloring synthetic food casings such as casings manufactured from cellulose and collagen wherein the tubular casing in the gel state is impregnated with a solution containing caramel and thereafter the caramel is cross-linked and insolubilized in the casing to effect permanent coloring of the casing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 1976
    Date of Patent: July 26, 1977
    Assignee: Tee-pak, Inc.
    Inventors: Matiur Rahman, Harold R. Coleman
  • Patent number: 3993790
    Abstract: Aqueous dispersions of swollen hide collagen suitable for extrusion into tubular food casings are prepared by dispersing finely comminuted collagen particles at a concentration of 2-8% by weight in water. Swelling of the collagen particles is effected by adjusting the pH of the dispersion to between 2.5 to 3.7 with a mixture of a strong acid having a dissociation constant in water at 25.degree. C of greater than 1 .times. 10.sup.-.sup.3, e.g., sulfuric acid, and a weak acid having a dissociation constant in water at 25.degree. C between 1 .times. 10.sup.-.sup.6 to 1 .times. 10.sup.-.sup.3, e.g., lactic acid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 1976
    Date of Patent: November 23, 1976
    Assignee: Tee-Pak Inc.
    Inventor: Noel I. Burke
  • Patent number: 3982031
    Abstract: An improved process for tanning edible collagen food casings wherein the coagulated and washed collagen casing is exposed to a tanning bath which is free of aluminum chelating reagents and contains a mixture of aluminum ammonium sulfate, as A1NH.sub.4 (SO.sub.4).sub.2. 12H.sub.2 O and monobasic aluminum sulfate (A10HSO.sub.4), the concentration of the aluminum ammonium sulfate in the bath being less than 3% by weight and the molar ratio of aluminum ammonium sulfate to monobasic aluminum sulfate being in the range of 1:2 to 2:1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 1975
    Date of Patent: September 21, 1976
    Assignee: Tee-Pak, Inc.
    Inventor: Noel Ian Burke
  • Patent number: 3943262
    Abstract: Dyed edible food casings, e.g. sausage casings, are produced by applying an edible dye to an edible carrier therefor, fixing the dye on the carrier by use of a protein, and admixing the carrier with an edible casing material to form an extrudable composition. That composition is then used for production of the casing by extrusion. The dye can be a water soluble dye, a fat soluble but water insoluble dye, or a water insoluble, alkali soluble dye.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 1974
    Date of Patent: March 9, 1976
    Assignee: Naturin-Werk Becker & Co.
    Inventors: Bruno Winkler, Bernd Mangei, Dieter Fritz
  • Patent number: 3932677
    Abstract: This invention relates to a method for preparing a collagen casing from a collagen source which had been subjected to a rigourous liming for effectively completely liming the hide collagen. The fully limed hide collagen is soaked in a dilute edible acid having a pH below about 5.5 for a time sufficient to reduce the pH in the center of the hide to about 4 - 5.5, and then washing the neutralized hide with water until the pH of the supernatant after a 20 minute exposure with the hide, is within about 0.2 pH units of that of the incoming water. The hide is then ground and formed into a collagen slurry and processed in conventional manner into edible collagen casings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 1974
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1976
    Assignee: Tee-Pak, Inc.
    Inventor: Noel I. Burke