Chapter: GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Microbial contamination of casings Bacteria As casings are cleaned in batches at water temperatures around 40 °C, microbiological cross-contamination and bacterial outgrowth is evident. Koolmees and Houben (1997) illustrated the 15 bacterial load of casings at various cleaning steps, underlining the necessity to take appropriate actions to prevent quality loss and possible food safety risks.…

Anatomy From pigs, the entire intestinal tract is used for the production of casings, specifically the small intestines (duodenum, jejunum, ileum), bung (caecum), large intestines (colon ascendens & transversum), after end (colon descendens) and fat end (rectum). From sheep, the small intestines (duodenum, jejunum, ileum) and bung (caecum) are used. The intestinal tract of cattle…

History Natural sausage casings (“casings”) are traditional products that have been used in the production of meat specialities for centuries and have remained virtually unchanged in function and appearance. A large variety of sausage is produced world-wide using the processed intestines of pigs, sheep, goats and cattle (and sometimes horses). It is often assumed that…