Methods and devices heat or cool viscous materials, such as meat emulsions useful for producing food and other products. The devices have a heat exchanger including a first plate, a second plate attached to the first plate, and a first spacer and a second spacer arranged between the first plate and the second plate. The first plate, the second plate, the first spacer, and the second spacer define at least one temperature controlled passage for a product to pass through the heat exchanger.

Methods and devices heat or cool viscous materials, such as meat emulsions useful for producing food and other products. The devices have a heat exchanger including a first plate, a second plate attached to the first plate, and a first spacer and a second spacer arranged between the first plate and the second plate. The first plate, the second plate, the first spacer, and the second spacer define at least one temperature controlled passage for a product to pass through the heat exchanger.

A double tube encasing apparatus and methods of encasing for encasing meat products in a double casing including a film (e.g. collagen film) and a net in which a first tube is loaded with a height reduced shirred film and a second coaxial tube which supports a shirred netting. In one embodiment a casing tube is placed over a meat stuffing horn and is preloaded with a loose shirred film. A second casing tube which supports the netting is pushed or placed over the loose shirred film, and causes a reduction in diameter of the loose shirred film for example by forcing the vertically pleated shirred film to layback.

The present disclosure relates to a filling machine and a method for filling up pasty or liquid masses, for example for sausage production, with a feed pump, in particular a vane pump, for conveying the pasty or liquid masses, a vacuum pump for generating a vacuum in the feed pump, in particular the vane cells of the vane pump, wherein the feed pump may be connected with the vacuum pump via a first channel and via an integrated collecting vessel for entrained ingredients. According to the present disclosure, a supply means is provided via which the feed pump may be optionally additionally connected with an external collecting vessel via the first channel. The operator may thus choose between two different operating modes with and without an external collecting vessel.

Process and an apparatus adapted to carry out the process steps for producing sausage products, which includes the following steps: Comminuting raw meat with fat, adding seasoning, salt and further additives, mixing in order to produce a raw sausage mass, forming the raw sausage mass, warming and fermenting the formed raw sausage mass, warming the formed fermented sausage mass to a temperature of approximately 57° C., and incubating at approximately 57° C. for germ reduction, immediately subsequently cooling the cooked fermented sausage mass to −1° C. or below with reduced pressure being applied, in order to produce a dried and cooled cooked sausage mass.

Process and an apparatus adapted to carry out the process steps for producing sausage products, which includes the following steps: Comminuting raw meat with fat, adding seasoning, salt and further additives, mixing in order to produce a raw sausage mass, forming the raw sausage mass, warming and fermenting the formed raw sausage mass, warming the formed fermented sausage mass to a temperature of approximately 57° C., and incubating at approximately 57° C. for germ reduction, immediately subsequently cooling the cooked fermented sausage mass to −1° C. or below with reduced pressure being applied, in order to produce a dried and cooled cooked sausage mass.

The present invention relates to a method, a coextrusion apparatus and a filling machine including a coextrusion apparatus of the type in question, wherein, during production of the sausage strand, the ratio of the volume flow of the casing material to the volume flow of the inner mass is variable along the sausage strand.

Packaging apparatus for producing encased products from flat-roll stock using an external user interface (i.e., a handle that is external to a housing holding the heat seal assembly that is attached to a horizontally oriented shaft that rotates a first gear in the housing to rotate an aligned second gear in the housing or an electronic control) that is attached to and/or in communication with (directly or indirectly) a heat-seal assembly with a heat-seal contact member, such as a heat-seal band, in the housing to allow a user to adjust a vertical height of the heat-seal assembly while the apparatus is operational and/or without requiring physical access to the interior of the housing.

Packaging apparatus for producing encased products from flat-roll stock using an external user interface (i.e., a handle that is external to a housing holding the heat seal assembly that is attached to a horizontally oriented shaft that rotates a first gear in the housing to rotate an aligned second gear in the housing or an electronic control) that is attached to and/or in communication with (directly or indirectly) a heat-seal assembly with a heat-seal contact member, such as a heat-seal band, in the housing to allow a user to adjust a vertical height of the heat-seal assembly while the apparatus is operational and/or without requiring physical access to the interior of the housing.

An interchangeable hook-and-bracket system for a manufacturing process is disclosed. The interchangeable hook-and-bracket system may be configured to cooperate with a vertical conveying system of a food-processing system. Interchangeable hooks of the conveyor system may comprise hook portions and bracket portions that may be configured to releasably attach to one another. The bracket portions may be made substantially of a structurally robust material such as a metal and may be non-releasably attached to the conveyor system, and the hook portions may be made substantially of a flexible material such as a polymer-based material. More than one hook portion may correspond to a bracket portion, each hook portion having a configuration corresponding to a particular product, casing, throughput, and/or process condition.