Food Marketing & Technology - India July 2019 | Page 24

Ingredient
SMART SKINS FOR
CLASSIC, VEGETARIAN
AND VEGAN SAUSAGE
A
ccording to Innova Market
Insights,
snacking
will
continue to be one of the
leading trends in the food industry.
For example, 83 percent of millennials
snack instead of eating big meals, due
to time constraints. Sausage is a classic
snack, whether as hot dog, currywurst
or salami stick, whether meat or plant-
based. Hydrosol has developed the
perfect casing for all these sausages
– SmartCasings based on alginate. By
means of co-extrusion sausages can be
made in all standard sizes.
SmartCasings are a small revolution in
sausagemaking. A liquid alginate layer
is applied to the sausage mass and
then hardened into a firm structure in
a calcium bath. The result is a strong
and edible casing that gives sausages
a crisp bite. What’s more, this casing is
and will remain available in unlimited
quantity, and also offers processing
advantages. “The stabilising system
is based on a complex mix of highly
reactive hydrocolloids and starch.
Synergistic effects upon exposure
to a calcium chloride solution lead
to the formation of a casing with
good elasticity and tensile strength,”
explains Hydrosol Product Manager
Florian Bark.
Stabilization and “packaging”
from a single source
SmartCasings are suitable for fresh
bratwurst, raw sausage and scalded
scalde
Photos: Hydrosol
sausage. They are highly tear-resistant,
and with raw sausages in particular
they give a pleasantly soft bite. The
technology can also be made to
work very well for scalded sausages,
as Florian Bark reports: “Scalded
sausages are a special challenge, as
they are exposed to damp heat both
during manufacture and later during
preparation. So the casing needs to be
not just tear-resistant, but also adhere
to the sausage mass after cooking. To
make sure it does, the sausages are
cooked not by hanging in steam, but
instead in a water bath using a special
technique.”
For best results, the casing and sausage
mass should be well adapted to each
other. This is true for all product
categories, but especially for scalded
sausage. “Here, our long experience in
stabilising sausages is a great benefit,
as in addition to the casing we can
always offer the right stabilisation
for the sausage mass. We take into
account the specific phosphate content,
salt content and viscosity of the mass.
Thus, we offer the entire package for
sausage-making, inside and out.”
Advantages of alginate casing
SmartCasings offer many advantages
over conventional sausage casings. They
Food Marketing & Technology
24
July 2019
permit a continuous manufacturing
process, which results in low
production costs. With SmartCasings
there is no wastage or rework from
intestine changes. Alginate cases also
enable higher hourly throughput than
is possible with conventional filling
technology. The highly automated
production technique requires less
manual intervention and so has
lower personnel costs. Furthermore,
unlike cellulose casings there is no
peeling step. There are also savings
in material costs, as alginate casings
are substantially more economical
than natural intestine, collagen and
cellulose casings.
Hydrosol SmartCasings also have
another advantage – they are supplied
as a powder. This gives them a much
longer shelf life than finished pastes,
rendering preservatives superfluous.
Transportation and storage costs are
also much lower with powder than
with pastes. The SmartCasing powder
can be made into a paste at any time.
Hydrosol currently offers two powder
versions, SmartCasing M as the
standard version with animal protein
and SmartCasing VR for vegetarian
and vegan sausages. Hydrosol
SmartCasings are available in halal
and kosher versions.