Meat + Poultry - August 2007 - 48

The QX cook-in-pack technology totally
circumvents manual handling of product and
ingredients in the plant.
Photo courtesy of Stork Townsend Inc.

Delivering
the
goods
Coextrusion technology links
processors with successful
production
By Nicole Zaro Stahl
meatpoultry@sosland.com

s grilling season hits its peak,
it might be more than coincidence that demand for sausage
coextrusion systems is also sizzling. The
consensus from equipment authorities
like Brad McAvoy, commercial manager
for QX Systems U.S. at Stork Townsend
Inc., Des Moines, Iowa. He affirms the
interest in coextrusion technology has
gained momentum especially in the last
18 months. The flurry of interest is at54

MEAT&POULTRY

August 2007

tributable to a series of equipment installations over the past three years. Once
processors witness extended run-times,
Cook-in-Pack technology and food safety enhancements, news of the benefits
spreads quickly. Townsend's QX coextrusion systems now account for nearly
50 percent of all smoked link and ring
product produced in the U.S. sausage
market, McAvoy says.
"While most QX installations are

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justified by savings in yield, casing, rework, and labor, the food-safety benefit weighs heavily in the decision," he
says. In contrast to the many sequential steps involved in traditional sausage
making, which create opportunities to
introduce unwanted microorganisms,
coextruded sausage is a continuous
process of pre-drying, smoking and
then post-drying to the point where
products can be packaged, and finalcooked in hot water. "The Cook-inPack technology eliminates exposure
to pathogens after cooking. Therefore,
the Listeria rule for this ready-to-eat
product does not apply."
By utilizing post package cooking
and avoiding starts and stops in the production process, processors can benefit
from extended run times. "In the meat
industry, production typically runs for
18 to 20 hours, and then equipment has
to be torn apart, washed, cleaned, and
put back together before restarting,"
McAvoy says. QX installations provide
an alternative to this," maximizing run
time with their continuous production
capabilities. In some plants, he continues, "we never stop as long as meat and
collagen are in the hopper."
According to McAvoy, Townsend's
dedication to acquiring and developing proprietary coextrusion technology has propelled QX coextrusion into
a leadership position in the sausage
industry. A big draw is the system's
ability to make many types of sausage
products using various forms of gels to
produce casing in fresh, smoke-cook,
or dried sausage.

Coex co-developers
Advances in coextrusioin technology
and the opportunities it presents has
garnered the attention of other suppliers as well. Handtmann Inc., Buffalo Grove, Ill., and ALKAR-RapidPak,
Lodi, Wis., are currently teaming on
a coex project incorporating Handtmann's ConPro System and ALKAR's
thermal processing technology. Each

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Meat + Poultry - August 2007

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