Casing in Point
Polyamide casings benefit Fischer Packing Co. in more ways than one
In 1990, Joel Coble of Fischer Packing Co. made a key discovery while on a business trip in Europe: polyamide casings. At that time, his company was using fibrous casings.
"Once I returned to the United States, I discovered an American source for polyamide casings," says Coble, product development and quality assurance manager for the Louisville, Ky.-based hog slaughterer and pork packer. "We started testing its polyamide casings in September 1991, and we have been using them [for deli and foodservice bologna and braunschweiger products] ever since."
The casings Coble is referring to are Brechteen's Polyamide Cook'n Ship casings.
Polyamide casings were first developed in Europe about 10 years ago, according to John Squire, product manager for Brechteen's plastic and skinless casings. Its primary purpose was as an environmentally friendly casing option for meat packers. These casings are basically nylon-based and free of chlorine and plasticizers.
Cook'n Ship varieties include Optan (deli polyamide casings), Betan (chub polyamide), Tripan (specialty polyamide), and polyester seamless casings (in shrink and non-shrink versions).
"The beauty of Cook 'n Ship is that you just cook the product [in the casing], put it in a box, and ship it to your customer," Squire adds.
Cook'n Ship casings are superior to traditional plastics because polyamide resists cutting during clipping and splitting during cooking, claims the supplier. Improved size control, compared to other plastic casings, produces higher yields. And blunt ends reduce waste during slicing.
In comparison to regular and moisture-proof fibrous casings, Cook'n Ship Polyamide casings extend shelf life, allow for faster reaction times to customer orders, improve cooking yields and reduce secondary packaging requirements. There is also less shrinkage, and the overall casing costs a pound are lower.
Evolution of Cook'n Ship
About seven years ago, shortly after Squire was brought inside to develop the U.S. market, Brechteen modified its line of polyamide casings to fit American market demand, including different colors and sizes.
"We realized that there were many meat companies in the United States that did not use secondary [primarily vacuum] packaging," Squire notes. "Companies using traditional fibrous casings with no barriers-who were just cooking and shipping products-were losing yield during processing. And shelf-life was minimal."
Coble points out that products packed in Cook'n Ship casings are stable and don't shrink. Microbial growth is also inhibited-a vacuum-packaging benefit.
"We ship a lot of product to delis," Coble says. "Before, we would typically get 15 to 20 days [of shelf life] on a stick of regular fibrous before the product would start shrinking and showing some mold growth on the outside. Unless the customer was a high-volume deli, we could get a lot of wastage and credits."
Asked about shelf-life advantages, Coble says when shipping product in a standard fibrous casing without vacuum-packaging, it gets around 14 days under proper refrigeration.
If products in fibrous casings are vacuum-packaged, product can get 45 to 60 days of shelf life. Brechteen's Polyamide Cook'n Ship casings should give products 60 days without vacuum packaging, he claims.
Squire points out other advantages through an account who considered using vacuum packaging.
"Vacuum packaging usually requires six to eight people to run an operation, with only 4,800 pounds of product being processed an hour," Squire says. "By using Cook'n Ship, two people can pack off 12,000 pounds of product an hour."
Chesterfield, Mich.-based Brechteen is part of a global supplier that manufactures Cook'n Ship polyamide casings and offers customers technical and training support in use of these products.