FMC Launches New Alginate-based Sausage Casing Technology

06 Feb 2015 --- FMC Corporation’s Health and Nutrition division officially introduced today its lineup of new alginate-based sausage casing solutions for use in all major types of coextrusion sausage making equipment. These innovative solutions offer superior casing strength with improved performance, functionality and product flexibility, and result in considerable savings to sausage manufacturers.

By combining its position as the global leader in alginates with its technical expertise, FMC developed a sausage casing technology that delivers better appearance, sensory properties, throughput rates, shelf-life, cooking performance and eating qualities for many sausage types when compared to other alginate-based sausage casing options. FMC’s technology, which is protected by various granted patents and pending applications, also improves adhesion and ‘snap’ when compared to other alginate-based coextrusion options.

Unlike costly ready-to-use pastes that contain up to 90 percent water, FMC’s alginate-based casing technology provides a lower-cost solution with improved process functionality and equipment performance. And compared to collagen and other natural-based casings, FMC’s alginate-based casing technology also offers significant cost savings on raw materials.

FMC’s alginate-based casing technology is also a sustainable solution for sausage makers, as it requires no refrigerated storage of the alginate-based powder and has at least twice the shelf life as other casing options. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions due to decreased volume requirements, resulting in fewer deliveries and less exhaust emissions and reduces waste due to less packaging material.

During the past year, FMC collaborated with selected sausage producers and successfully implemented this technology for a number of different sausage varieties. As necessary, FMC’s expert technical support team will continue to assist sausage producers to fine tune this proprietary casing and process technology to their specific needs.

“As the lead harvester of brown seaweed, coupled with more than 75 years of experience in the food industry with tried and true food science, we have a deep understanding of the complexity of product formulation, and this new sausage casing technology is a prime example of that,” said David Birnbaum, FMC Health and Nutrition, Americas marketing manager. 

“This technology is an exciting piece of the future of FMC’s Nutrition business as we work to provide increasingly robust, functional and customer-tested solutions by combining our technology and product knowledge in new and innovative ways.”

FMC’s alginates are naturally derived products extracted from brown seaweeds harvested from the Norwegian Sea and other key regions around the world. Alginates are among the most versatile of the hydrocolloids the company offers. In addition to sausage casings, alginates are used in a wide variety of applications as thickeners, stabilizers and gelling agents.