Science

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Food Processing Technology

The Ian’s gluten free Sausage Pancrepes are first started by bringing the meat trimmings

into the processing plant. The meat trimmings are placed into a mincer or grinder. A specific

piece of technology used is called a bowl chopper. There the meat is pushed through plates with

rotating knives. The bowl chopper rotates and the meat is cut up and reduced in particle size. As

the meat is mixed and chopped, the fat and meat proteins are emulsified. The other ingredients

for the sausage are added and mixing continues. This completes the batter.

The finished batter is pumped to a stuffing machine. A vacuum is used to prevent bubbles

from getting into the casing. This is beneficial while pumping the batter into the casing as it

provides a more consistent and uniform texture to the sausage. The casing is made from

cellulose. Nisin, an antibiotic approved for commercial use in food preservation, is added to the

casing to prevent listeria giving it an antimicrobial effect. The casing also has a black stripe

down the length of the sausage. The purpose of this is to make it easy to tell if any casing has

remained on any sausage links after it has gone through the peeler. The stuffer twists the casing

at the desired length forming the sausage link shape. The sausage links are hung on racks and

moved into a smoke house to begin the cooking process. They then go through a tunnel oven to

finish cooking. Once fully cooked the sausage links move off the racks and onto a conveyor

where they are inspected and taken to the peeler machine.

The casing must be removed before consuming. It is removed by a sausage peeler

machine. TheTownsend 2600 Sausage Peeler was developed using the American Meat Institutes

Sanitary Guidelines. The design of this peeler allows for easy cleaning and maintenance of the

machine. The peeler machine has a small knife that cuts the casing length wise. Steam then

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blows the casing off the sausage links. The finished sausages are moved to another conveyor belt

where they will eventually meet up with the pancrepes.

At another part of the factory the pancrepes are made. All dry ingredients are poured into

the horizontal mixer. Liquids are pumped in from refrigerated storage tanks. Once the batter is

completely mixed, it is pumped to a holding tank while the viscosity is checked. The approved

batter moves from holding tank into a depositor system. The depositor deposits an exact amount

of batter to form the pancrepes on a moving griddle conveyor belt. The pancrepes reach

automated spatulas that flip them so they are cooked on the other side. Once they reach the end,

they are fully cooked and flip off the griddles. This flip insures they do not get folded over after

coming off the griddles.

After the pancrepes are flipped off they are lined up along a moving conveyor belt. The

sausages are brought on another conveyor belt from the peeler and inspection. While the

technology used for combining the two products is not open to the public, an automated hand

places one sausage on a pancrepe and another mechanism rolls the pancrepe around it. The

combined product is then rolled in parchment paper that holds them together during freezing and

cooking. They are then sent to a tunnel freezer to quickly freeze the product. Flash freezing is an

important technology for maintain the quality of the product and prevent large crystal formation.

Once the finished Sausage Pancrepes reach the end, they are individually packaged in plastic and

sealed. The plastic packaged product is deposited into the cardboard packaging display box.

These boxes are stacked on a pallet, shrink wrapped then placed in a large freezer until they are

shipped to stores.