Film Having a Liquid Absorbed Therein

Abstract

The present invention relates to a film having a liquid at least partially absorbed therein, wherein the liquid has been applied to a surface of the film and prior to application of the liquid to the surface, the surface has been subjected to a surface activation treatment such that the surface has a surface energy of at least about 50 dynes.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60 / 501,339, filed Sep. 8, 2003, and U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60 / 454,444, filed 13 Mar. 2003.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a film having a surface with a liquid at least partially absorbed therein. In particular, the present invention relates to a film for use as a packaging for a food product and especially relates to a tubular food casing for food, which is to be cooked or otherwise heated within the casing.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The present invention will be described with particular reference to a film for use in packaging food. However, it will be appreciated that the film of the present invention may have applications and uses other than in the food industry and no limitation is intended thereby.[0004]There are a number of applications for articles having a material with a liquid absorbed on...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0031]It is known to treat a polyolefin material by corona discharge so as to improve the wettabilty of the surface so as to facilitate printing. Typically the polyolefin is treated to increase the surface energy from about 30-32 dynes up to about 37-40 dynes. The power levels required to provide such increases in dyne level depend to some extent on the nature of the material to be treated and any additives therein. Different materials may react differently. For example, polyesters are known to require relatively low power levels of from about 8 to 11 W-m / M2, whereas polypropylene requires relatively “high” levels of about 22 to about 27 W-m / M2. Higher corona treatment levels are considered to be undesirable as it is believed there is a breakdown of the polymer surface and release of low molecular weight products which actually reduces the ability of the surface to bond to an ink or the like.

[0046]The liquid may also consist essentially of water. The present inventor has surprisingly observed that when films which are typically quite stiff are treated according to the method of the present invention, the amount of water which may be absorbed is sufficient to alter the physical properties of the film such that the film is soft and pliable. An application of a softer film is in the food packaging industry where food products are stuffed into a tubular casing prior to being placed in a metal mould, which is typically of a square or rectangular cross section. Foods packaged and cooked in this way are referred to as moulded products. The flexibility of the film allows the film to conform to the shape of the mould. On the other hand, for some applications such as stuffing (where a food product is injected into a tubular casing and cooked to provide a product of circular cross section) a film having less flexibility may be desired.

[0049]Preferably, a modified slugging process is used to apply the liquid to the surface in which the slug is trapped between an upper and lower pair of nip rolls. The upper set of rolls preferably includes a chrome plated roller and a rubber roller. The rubber roller typically has a hardness of between about 60 to about 120, typically between about 70 to about 100 durometer. As the tube passes between the two sets of rolls, liquid is carried with the tube and the upper set of rolls act as metering rolls. In the embodiment of the invention, where the liquid consists essentially of water, it is preferred that the water include a viscosity increasing agent. Increasing the viscosity facilitates passage of the liquid towards the upper set of rolls.

[0055]A food product packaged within the film of the invention may be cooked by any suitable method such as boiling, heated by steam, or placed in an oven. Preferably, the packaged food is cooked as soon as possible after packaging. Alternatively, the packaged food product may be subjected to a pre-heating step so as to fix the colour prior to cooking. For example, the packaged product may be pre-heated to a temperature of between about 150° F. and about 200° F. for a period of up to about 6 minutes. During cooking, the food colouring additive can impart a colour to the surface of the food.

Problems solved by technology

However, the types of materials which can be used to form such articles are strictly limited to those having suitable absorption or permeability properties for the desired liquid.

In practice, this has severely restricted the types of materials which may be used.

Smoking by such traditional techniques is labour intensive, time consuming (with smoking times being up to a number of days) and the level of smoke generated often conflicts with pollution laws.

Liquid smoke is the aqueous condensate of natural wood smoke, which contains aldehydes that react with proteins in the meat resulting in browning of the meat surface.

In practice, however, it has been found that with this spraying process it is difficult to provide a uniform coating to the product.

Further, the liquid smoke spray tended to run down the sides of the stuffed casing and gather at the lower end thereof.

This uneven coating of liquid smoke resulted in a product having an undesirable blotchy appearance.

However, this provides either an insufficient amount of agent on the surface to provide the desired colour, or imparts an excessively smoky flavour to the product.

Such external treatment can present difficulties with further processing of the cellulose casings and in particular, may interfere with shirring.

The permeability and porosity of cellulose casings which on the one hand, makes them compatible for use with liquid smoke, on the other hand introduces serious and widely recognized disadvantages.

First, cellulose products are highly permeable to water vapour.

This results in a reduced yield of product, which is disadvantageous for commercial reasons.

Further, cellulose casings are also oxygen permeable which leads to spoiling and / or discolouration of the food product.

This rewrapping step provides an opportunity for contamination or infection of the food product that represents a loss in quality and shortening of shelf life.

Further, the additional steps add to costs.

When using casing of this type, there is negligible loss in weight during the production process or during storage and shipping.

However, as a result of the impermability of the casing, smoke in either gaseous or liquid form cannot penetrate the casing.

Further, impregnation of thermoplastic casings with liquid smoke or other colouring additives has not been successful since the plastics used cannot adequately absorb and store impregnating agents.

These additional steps not only increase cost but increase the risk of contamination.

This is undesirable from a consumer acceptance point of view.

Further, it has been observed that there is a tendency for flaking or chipping of the cooked meat surface during slicing.

However, to date all attempts to solve this problem and provide a commercially acceptable product have failed for one reason or another.

This has been unsuccessful for a number of reasons including reaction and volatilization of the liquid smoke at extrusion temperatures and delamination induced by the presence of the additive.

However, such a product has yet to be adopted commercially and in tests conducted by the present inventor on one such material, have shown that there is still insufficient absorption of liquid into the film and excess liquid remains on the surface of the film.

The result is non uniform transfer of colour and flavour to the surface of the product.

However, heating may be difficult or not possible if the film is a heat shrink film.

A delicate balance is required to have the coating adhere sufficiently to the casing surface to withstand shirring and stuffing operations and yet release to the surface of the food product during processing.

If the casing is in the form of a tube, the liquid containing colour and flavour solution can be added to the inside of the tube by well known techniques known as slugging but there is no practical method to remove the excess liquid.

Therefore sufficient flavour and colour cannot be added without non-uniform transfer to the product surface.

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