Editing Sausage casing (section)

===Collagen casings===
[[file:Beretta Salami and Collagen Casing .jpg|right|150px|thumb|A salami and the collagen casing (below) it came in]]
Collagen casings are mainly produced from the collagen in beef or pig hides,<ref name=usdaask /> and the bones and tendons. It can also be derived from poultry and fish. They have been made for more than 50 years and their share of the market has been increasing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lemproducts.com/understanding_collagen_casings|title=Understanding Collagen Casings &#124; LEM Products &#124; The Leader In Game Processing|website=lemproducts.com|quote=A natural protein product, collagen comes from a layer of beef hide, removed and refined. The more refined the processing, the more tender the casing.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://askthemeatman.com/what_are_collagen_casings.htm|title=What are Collagen Casings? How Are Collagen Casings Produced?|website=askthemeatman.com}}</ref> Usually the cost to produce sausages in collagen is significantly lower than making sausages in gut because of higher production speeds and lower labor requirements.

The collagen for artificial casings is processed extensively. It is formed by [[Food extrusion|extrusion]] through a die to the desired diameter, dried and [[shirring|shirred]] into short sticks up to {{convert|41|cm|abbr=on}} long that contain as much as {{convert|50|m|abbr=on}} of casing. In a newer process, a form of dough is coextruded with the meat blend, and a coating is formed by treating the outside with a calcium solution to set the coating.

The latest generation of collagen casings are usually more tender than natural casings and do not exhibit the "snap" or "bite" of natural casing sausages. Most collagen casings are edible, but a special form of thicker collagen casings is used for [[salami]]s and large caliber sausages where the casing is usually peeled off the sausage by the consumer. Collagen casings are less expensive to use, give better weight and size control, and are easier to run when compared to natural casings.