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Artificial sausage casing technology smokes the competition

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Brampton, Ont.-based Tronoplast Technologies Inc. has just delivered a new ultra-high speed three-layer line designed for manufacturing porous, naturally smokeable polymeric sausage casing to a European customer.

It’s an old adage that you never want to know how the sausage gets made. But the food industry may want to pay close attention to a new artificial sausage casing technology developed by extrusion film equipment maker Tronoplast Technologies Inc.

The Brampton, Ont.-based firm has just delivered a new ultra-high speed three-layer line designed for manufacturing porous, naturally smokeable polymeric sausage casing to a European customer.

Called HS-TRON, the system will allow the customer to cash in on the growing trend of artificial casings that allow using real smoke in the sausage-making process instead of smoke-flavoured additives – an option that, until recently, the food industry could only achieve by using sausage casings made from natural animal tissue.

Photo Credit: Tronoplast Technologies Inc.

“The line, which uses a special polymer mix developed by the customer, is aimed at being the most productive line in the industry,” said Sergey Kotylev, Tronoplast’s vice president of operations. “Depending on the skin casing formulation, it produces about 300 meters per minute, but it can produce up to 400 meters per minute under optimal conditions, making it approximately 25 per cent faster than competing lines. It gives our customer a substantial competitive advantage.”

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Perfected over several iterations, the HS-TRON offers very tight control over formulation, stretching, thickness variation, and caliber deviation, Kotylev continued. “Sophisticated line control permits ramping-up the line speed at a ratio of up to 10:1 while maintaining the multiple critical process parameters necessary for high-quality casing production,” he said.

Tronoplast sent staff members to the customer’s operation to supervise the set-up process in May.

“We believe we have brought the artificial sausage casing technology to a new level,” Kotylev said. “And we’ve also developed a supplementary technology for preparing the customized raw material for breathable casing.”

It’s a sausage-making process you might actually want to watch.

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