FI63325B - FOERFARANDE FOER BEFUKTNING OCH VECKNING AV ETT KONSTGJORT KORVSKINN - Google Patents

Description

- rn ^ PATENT PUBLICATION ^ 7? or ^ PATE N TS K Rl FT 6 332 5 (51) Kv.ik3lnt.ci.3 A 22 C 13/02 0 0 jOl 'V · (21) Patent application - Patentansökning 7706 ^ 9 ( n) Date of application - Ansökningsdag 01 .03-77 (23) Date of commencement - Giltighetsdag 01.03 * 7 7 FINLAND —FINLAND (41) Publicity - Bllvit offentlig 02.09.77 / C | \ (44) Date of publication and of publication - V ~ V Ansökan utlagd och utl.skriften publicerad 28.02.83 (45) Patent granted - Patent meddelat 29.05.8 * 4

Patent and Registration Office

Patent-och registerstyrelsen (32) (33) (31) Claim claimed - Begärd priohtet 01.03-76 22.03.76 USA (US) 662669, 66907 * 4 Proven-Styrkt (73) Teepak, Inc., 2 North Riverside Plaza, Chicago , Illinois, USA (72) Douglas Joseph Bridgeford, Champaign, Illinois, John Robert Wilson, Danville, Illinois, Noel Ian Burke, Danville, Illinois, USA (7 * 4) Leitz Inger Oy (5 * 0 Method for wetting and creasing artificial sausage casings - Method for wetting and creasing artificial sausage casings

Artificial sausage casings made from many different materials, such as regenerated cellulose and collagen, have achieved widespread success as a synthetic substitute for natural casings in the manufacture of sausages. In the manufacture of these shells, the shells are extruded in the form of a continuous hose. To facilitate handling and transport, the artificial sausage casings are corrugated from lengths ranging from 12 to 61 m to a compacted length of a few tens of cm, for example 10 to 36 cm. The moisture contents of the extruded shells are generally between 10-14%. To corrugate and fill these shells, the shells require higher moisture contents, for example, 10-20% moisture content for regenerated cellulose shells and 24-26% moisture content for collagen shell flakes. When the moisture content of the shells is below the above-mentioned areas, the shells are too brittle and often break during corrugation and filling.

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In order to increase the moisture content of the artificial sausage casings to make them suitable for corrugation, it has been proposed to internally moisten the artificial sausage casings while lubricating the sausage casing in a corrugating machine by spraying water and lubricant separately on the shell walls through the crimping mandrel. Wetting is also accomplished by spraying water on the crimping wheels or crimping belts and then bringing these wheels or belts into contact with the outer surface of the shell. In these methods, it has been proposed to add a wetting agent in an amount of about 0.02-0.04% by weight of the solution to improve the wetting rate of the shell.

It has also been proposed to apply coatings to the inner surface of regenerated cellulose sausage casings during the corrugation process. The coatings used in these processes are intended to improve the release of the skins from the sausages pressed into them. The lubricants used in these processes are aqueous emulsions of vegetable, mineral or paraffin oils.

It has also been proposed to moisten artificial sausage casings after they have been corrugated by spraying a mixture of water and lubricant over the surface of the corrugated shell. The lubricants used in the mixture were emulsions of vegetable, animal or refined oils.

A method has also been used in which several different coatings have been applied to the inner surface of artificial sausage casings of regenerated cellulose by spraying the coating solutions through a corrugation mandrel. These coating solutions typically contained about 0.2-2% by weight of cetyl alcohol, acetylated and monoglycerides of animal and vegetable fats, and C 1 -C 4 fatty ketene dimers in a 12% Glycerin / water solution.

The present invention relates to a method for wetting an artificial sausage shell in a crimping machine, in which the wetting liquid is brought into contact with the inner wall of the non-crimped shell and the shell is then crimped.

The process is characterized in that a mixture containing water and about 0.5-5% of partial fatty acid esters of sorbitol and / or glycerol is used as the wetting liquid and applied to the shell in an amount which gives about 0.0023-0.023 mg of sorbitol and / or p glycerol partial fatty acid esters per cm of shell.

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According to the invention, artificial sausage casings are produced in which the corrugation mandrel forms fewer defects and fewer small holes and which has better flexibility to prevent tearing during filling. The shells moistened in accordance with the present invention can be corrugated with conventional corrugating machines without clogging, a disadvantage often encountered when using aqueous emulsions of mineral oil and vegetable oil. The method of the present invention also provides a shell that has a substantially uniform moisture content and does not "grow" from its compacted state immediately after peeling.

The term "artificial sausage casing" as used herein includes synthetic casings made of regenerated cellulose, fibrous casings such as those made by forming a tube from long fibrous hemp paper, impregnating the tube with viscose and regenerating cellulose from inside and outside the tube, and synthetics. collagen, amylose, starch or alginates.

The liquid used for wetting the shell is a practically homogeneous mixture consisting of water and partial fatty acid esters of sorbitol and / or glycerol. These compounds are water-dispersible surfactants which have lubricating properties and are able to be absorbed onto the surface of the shell wall so that when the shell is passed over the shirring mandrel, the surfactant absorbs at least a considerable amount of shear forces. If the surfactant does not have sufficient lubricating properties, the shell will tend to stick or stick to the crease mandrel and clog the machine. Clogging is commercially undesirable to a considerable extent, i. 1 ten coils for example 15 240-18 300 meters.

The surfactant should be water dispersible with simple mixing and without emulsifiers. It should also remain a stable dispersion when dispersed in water without stirring for at least four hours. As mentioned above, aqueous emulsions of lubricating oils have been used to lubricate the inner wall of artificial sausage casings so that the crust slides over the mandrel, but these oil lubricants, due to their insolubility and dispersibility in water, tend to slow the wetting of the crust with water. It is necessary to wet the shell during the short time available between the contact of the water jet and the contact of the corrugated wheels to avoid damaging the shell.

The water-dispersible surfactants of this invention not only improve wetting and spreading to allow rapid wetting of the shell, but also provide a thin, uniform layer of lubricant on the shell surface that slides easily over the shirring mandrel. Surfactant lubricant does not retard wetting, such as water-dispersible lubricants.

Partial fatty acid esters of sorbitol and / or glycerol are used in the wetting liquid in an amount of about 0.5-5% by weight of the liquid. When a surfactant having lubricating properties is used in an amount of less than about 0.5% by weight, an insufficient amount of surfactant is obtained on the surface of the shell to allow sufficient lubrication of the shell to pass it over the crimping mandrel. This is in stark contrast to the prior art in that surfactants were added to water and sprayed onto the inner wall of the shell at about 1/20 and quite often about 1/40 of the amount required to achieve the lubricating properties required. required in corrugation, even if wetting was achieved. However, in previous methods, most of the surfactant used was intended for wetting the shell, allowing water to penetrate inside the shell, and not for lubrication.

When the amount of surfactant having lubricating properties exceeds about 5% by weight in the wetting fluid, there is a tendency to load the shell with too much surfactant at the appropriate moisture level. This load causes the corrugated shell chain to "grow" or become non-uniform. By growth is meant that the shell chain does not remain in its compacted form and swells after peeling. With large amounts of surfactant, the corrugations do not adhere and the shell chain may become non-uniform, i. the folds do not stick together and are difficult to handle without breaking. Broken shell chains are not acceptable on very fast automatic filling machines.

In the practice of the invention, the preferred surfactant having lubricating properties is a partial fatty acid ester of sorbitol and especially sorbitol trioleate. Sorbitol trioleate is a nonionic surfactant which is a relatively viscous oily liquid and dispersible in water, although insoluble therein. Although combined with 0.5-5% by weight of water and preferably 5% by weight; ; 63325 amounts of 0.8-1.5% to be applied to the inner surface of the shell, the amount of surfactant on the wall after wetting is typically 0.0023-0.023 mg / cm. This amount of surfactant gives the shell excellent physical properties. Sor-bitol trioleate provides a shell with fewer small holes and greater resistance to tearing than has been achieved in any commercial process. In addition, sorbitol trioleate has the advantage that its lubricating properties are such that the clogging density in the sausage casing crimping machine is less than 1 for every 15,240-18,290 meters of crimped crust. This is considerably less than that achieved with shells moistened with water through a corrugation mandrel using an aqueous emulsion of mineral oil or vegetable oil as a lubricant.

An additional advantage of sorbitol trioleate as a surfactant is that it improves the wetting of the shell to achieve excellent flexibility of the shell at the stage when the shell comes to the corrugation wheels. As a result, compacting the shell for many corrugations does not cause the development of small holes. In fact, the frequency of small holes in the shells described above is remarkably low. Shells with relatively few small holes also generally have the advantage that they do not tend to grow after being corrugated. Thus, the corrugated shell chain can be easily handled without the risk of tearing.

Although excellent results are obtained by spraying a mixture of water and a surfactant, especially sorbitol trioleate, into the inner wall of the artificial shell, it is sometimes desirable to add more lubricant with the air stream during corrugation. Lubricants can also be sprayed on the outer surface to reduce wear on the crimp wheels. Conventional lubricants for such use are vegetable and mineral oils mixed with acetylated monoglycerides and polyoxyethylene monoesters, for example polyoxyethylene 400 monostearate.

In the corrugation of collagen shells, it has been found to be particularly advantageous to add a partial fatty acid ester of glycerol to a wetting liquid containing a partial fatty acid ester of sorbitol. The addition of the fatty acid ester of glycerol to the wetting liquid substantially reduces the "bond breakage" during the shell filling step. If the shells are not sufficiently moistened, cracking of the shoulder portion of the meat-filled shell during the shredding phase occurs during the filling, rotation and tearing steps of the shells. This phenomenon is referred to in the art as "bond cleavage" and if the cleavage exceeds 2-3%, the shells cannot be accepted for use.

By using a mixture of partial fatty acid esters of glycerol and sorbitol, more flexible moistened artificial sausage casings made from the animal skin collagen gene are obtained to avoid bond breakage during filling.

Partial oleic acid esters of glycerol are particularly useful in the practice of this invention and are commercially available as mixtures of mono- and diglycerides from the Glidder-Durkee section of SCM under the tradename GMO. The GMO consists of 55% by weight of oleic acid monoglyceride, 35% of oleic acid diglyceride and the remainder consists essentially of oleic acid triglyceride.

Partial fatty acid esters of glycerol must be present in the aqueous wetting liquid at a concentration of more than 0,1% by weight. As will be shown later, when a partial fatty acid ester of glycerol is added to less than 0.1% by weight of the wetting fluid, an undesirable increase in bond breakage occurs during filling of the collagen shell. In general, the amount of partial fatty acid ester of glycerol added to the wetting agent should be in the order of about 0.12-1.0 wt%. Although the partial fatty acid ester of glycerol can also be added to more than 1% by weight of the wetting liquid, such excessive amounts have only a small effect on improving the resistance of the collagen shell to rupture during the filling and cleavage steps. When the concentration of the partial fatty acid ester of alyserol in the wetting agent is between 0.15 and 1.0% by weight, this gives 0.0015-2 g, 015 mg of glycerol ester per cm of the surface of the shell.

The sorbitol fatty acid ester (e.g. sorbitol trioleate) of the fatty acid ester mixture is added to the wetting liquid in an amount of about 0.5-2% by weight and preferably about 0.8-1.5% by weight. As a rule of thumb, when the amount of the mixture of mono- and diesters of glycerol is reduced towards the lower limit in the wetting liquid to, for example, 0.2% by weight, the amount of partial fatty acid ester of sorbitol is increased towards the upper limit. Similarly, when the amount of a sorbitol partial fatty acid ester, e.g., sorbitol trioleate, is reduced toward a lower limit, e.g., 0.5%, the amount of mixed ester in glycerol is increased toward an upper limit, e.g., 1%. Sorbitol ester is applied to the inner walls of the shell in amounts of 0.006-2 0.015 mg per cm of shell surface.

j 7 63325 \ i The wetting fluid of the present invention should be applied to the shell prior to corrugation, and several different methods are suitable. One of the best ways to feed the wetting fluid inside the artificial shells before crimping is to do so during the actual crimping process. The device described in U.S. Patent 3,451,827 is well suited for wetting the shell prior to corrugation. This device is equipped with an injection system for applying the wetting liquid to the inner wall of the shell immediately before the shell comes into contact with the creasing wheels of the device.

The following examples are provided to illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention. All percentages are by weight.

Example 1

Artificial sausage casings of regenerated cellulose were moistened and lubricated virtually simultaneously during the corrugation process using U.S. Patent No. 3,451,827.

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described device. Although this type of device is advantageous because it comprises an injection system for applying the liquid to the inner wall of the shell, there is also another device which allows the wetting liquid to be applied.

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feed as a thin layer to the inner wall of the shell during corrugation, can be used. /

Six wetting fluids were prepared by dispersing 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 5, and 10% sorbitol trioleate in aqueous solutions. Dry, i.e. A shell of regenerated cellulose containing 10% water and having a diameter of 24 mm and a wall thickness of about 0.028 mm was fed over the corrugation mandrel and corrugated. As the shells passed over the mandrel, the inner wall came into contact with a fine jet of the above-mentioned liquids. Each shell was coated with approx.

o 0.47 mg of wetting fluid per cm of shell. Each corrugated shell chain contained 38 m of bark and contained about 0.001-0.047 mg of sorbitol tolitrioleate per cm of bark. The moisture content of the shell was approx.

18% + 2%.

The shell corrugated very evenly in amounts of 0.5, 1, 1.5, 5 and 10% and the shell did not clog during the corrugation of a section of about 15,240 m. The shells performed well in filling, but chains coated with 0.25% and 10% sorbitol trioleate did not perform as well as chains with 0.05-, 1.0-, 1.5-, and 5% amounts. At 0.25%, the shells appeared to have more small holes and more difficulty in corrugation, i. break- 8 63325 from. This was probably due to the low concentration of lubricant on the shell wall. A shell containing 10% sorbitan trioleate worked well, but the corrugated chain tended to grow.

The best corrugation results were obtained with 1-1.5% sorbitol oleate. Practical experiments showed that at a rate of 1%, the breaking frequency in one plant was 1 time / l 400 per chain tested. The second plant had 30 faults per 200 chains tested. Overall, these experimental results showed a reduced breakage rate during the filling phase compared to commercially available regenerated cellulosic shells.

Although the results varied from mill to mill, the general opinion was that the shells generally performed much better than commercially available cellulosic shells made with prior art wetting techniques.

Example 2

Corrugated shell chains are prepared by spraying a wetting liquid consisting of a 1% aqueous solution of sorbitol trioleate onto the inner wall of the cellulose shell as described in Example 1. Sorbitol trioleate was present in an amount of about 0.015 mg per 2 cm of shell and the moisture content of the shell was raised to about 18% by weight. Acetylated monoglyceride and 1% polyoxyethylene-400-mono-stearate were added with an air jet intended to fill the shell with air during the corrugation step and applied in an amount of about 0.3 g per 24 m long shell chain with a diameter of 24 mm.

Typical filling experiments with several thousand shell chains tested showed a breakage of about 0.2-0.4%. Normally, the shell moistened with the prior art shows an average break of about 2-3% under similar experimental conditions.

Example 3

The procedure of Example 1 was repeated except that collagen shell chains 12-15 m long were used instead of regenerated cellulose shell. The untreated collagen shell had a diameter of 21 mm, a wall thickness of about 0.7 mm and a moisture content of 18-21%. The shell chain was fed to a crimping mandrel and crimped. As the shell passed over the mandrel, the inner wall came into contact with an aqueous solution containing 1% sorbitol trioleate. The crust was evenly corrugated and its moisture content was determined to be between 24 st.

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Example 4

The artificial sausage casings extruded from collagen were moistened during the corrugation process using the apparatus described in U.S. Patent 3,451,827, which used an injection system to apply liquid to the inner wall of the crust.

The wetting liquid was prepared by dispersing 1% sorbitol trioleate and 0.2% GMO in aqueous solution. The piece is dry, i.e. A 14% aqueous collagen shell with a diameter of 21 mm and a wall thickness of about 0.030-0.036 mm was fed to a corrugated mandrel and corrugated. As the shells passed over the mandrel, the inner wall of the shell was exposed to a fine spray of an aqueous dispersion of 3 cm / chain. With this application rate, about 1.2 mg / cm of aqueous dispersion was applied to our inner wall 2 of the shell. The corrugated shell chain contained 12 meters of shell and the inner walls of the shell contained about 0.0020-0.0023 mg / cm 2 of GMO. The moisture content of the shell was about 24%.

The shell wrinkled very evenly. The shells performed well in the filling and shredding phase and the bond cleavage was found to be 0.94% in the filling and shredding phase.

For comparison, the procedure of Example 4 was repeated except that the sorbitol trioleate and GMO were not dispersed in the water jet. In the filling and shredding step, a 2.20% bonding chain was observed with the corrugated shell.

Example 5

In another experiment, a corrugated shell of a collagen shell was prepared by spraying a wetting liquid containing 1% sorbitol trioleate and 0.2% GMO in water onto the inner wall of the shell following the procedure of Example 1. Sorbitol trioleate was present in an amount of about 0.01 mg 2 2 per cm of shell and GMO was present in about 0.002 mg / cm of shell and the moisture content of the shell was raised to about 24% by weight.

For comparison, the procedure of Example 2 was repeated as a series of experiments except that in one experiment only 1% sorbitol trioleate was added to the wetting fluid, in another experiment 1% sorbitol trioleate and 0.1% GMO were added to the wetting fluid and in the third experiment the excipients were 2.5% sorbitol trioleate and 1% carbulose ).

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Binding breaks during the filling and cleavage phase were noted and recorded. The bond breaks of these chains are summarized in the table below.

Table

Experiment No. Excipients added to the wetting fluid Binding cleavage% 1 1% sorbitol trioleate + 0.2% GMO 0.09 2 1 w "+ 0.1" "6.00 31 *" 2.30 4 2.5 "'' + 1 CMC 2.40

Referring to the table, it will be readily apparent that the collagen shells wetted in accordance with this invention (Experiment No. 1 provide substantially fewer bond breaks in the filling and cleavage steps, especially compared to collagen shells wetted with aqueous dispersions containing excipients outside the scope of this invention (Experiments No. 2-4).

Claims (10)

A method for wetting an artificial sausage casing in a crimping machine, wherein the wetting liquid is contacted with the inner wall of the non-crimped crust and the crust is then crimped, characterized in that a mixture of water and about 0.5-5% sorbitol and / or glycerol partial fatty acid and applied to the shell in an amount to provide about 0.0023 to 0.023 mg of 2 partial fatty acid esters of sorbitol and / or glycerol per cm of shell. Process according to Claim 1, characterized in that the artificial shell is regenerated cellulose. Process according to Claim 1, characterized in that the artificial shell is collagen. Process according to Claim 1, characterized in that the wetting liquid contains a partial fatty acid ester of sorbitol. Process according to Claim 4, characterized in that the partial fatty acid ester of sorbitol is sorbitol trioleate. Process according to Claim 5, characterized in that the fatty acid ester of sorbitol is sorbitol trioleate and is present in the wetting liquid in an amount of about 0.8 to 1.5%. Process according to Claim 4, characterized in that the collagen shell is moistened with a wetting liquid consisting of water, a partial fatty acid ester of sorbitol and a partial fatty acid ester of glycerol. Process according to Claim 7, characterized in that the partial fatty acid esters are oily esters. Process according to Claim 7, characterized in that the glycerol ester is a mixture of mono- and diglycerides. Process according to Claim 7, characterized in that the glycerol ester is present in the wetting liquid in an amount of 0.12 to 1% by weight. 12 63325