DEAS 1188 : 2023 
ICS 67.120.10 
 
© EAC 2023                                                                                                                              First Edition 2023 
 DRAFT EAST AFRICAN STANDARD  
Edible natural casings — Specification  
 
‘ 
 
 
 
 
EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY  DEAS 1188 : 2023 
ii © EAC  2023 – All rights reserved  
 Copyright notice  
This EAC document is copyright -protected by EAC. While the reproduction of this document by 
participants in the EAC standards development process is permitted without prior permission from EAC, 
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any other purpose without prior written permission from EAC.  
Requests for permission to reproduce this document for the purpose of selling it should be addressed 
as shown below or to EAC’s member body in the country of the requester:  
© East African Community  2023 — All rights reserved  
East African Community   
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Reproduction for sales purposes may be subject to royalty payments or a licensing agreement.  
Violators may be prosecuted . DEAS 1188 : 2023 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  iii 
 Contents  Page 
Foreword  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................  iv 
1 Scope  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......................  1 
2 Normative references  ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................  1 
3 Terms and definitions  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...........................  2 
4 Requirements  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .........  3 
4.1 General requirements  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...........................  3 
4.2 Types of edible natural casings  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...........  3 
4.3 Grading  ................................ ................................ ................................ .......Error! Bookmark not defined.  
4.4 Casing length from different animals  ................................ ...................... Error! Bookmark not defined.  
4.5 Casing defects  ................................ ................................ ........................... Error! Bookmark not defined.  
5 Contaminants  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .........  3 
5.1 Veterinary Drug Residues  ................................ ................................ ................................ ....................  3 
5.2 Pesticide residues  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ . 4 
6 Hygiene  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................  4 
6.1 Microbiology  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..........  4 
7 Food Additives  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 4 
8 Packaging  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...............  4 
9 Labelling  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .................  4 
10 Nutrition and health claim  ................................ ................................ ........ Error! Bookmark not defined.  
11 Storage and transportation  ................................ ................................ ......Error! Bookmark not defined.  
12 Sampling  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................  5 
Bibliography  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................  6 
 
 DEAS 1188 : 2023 
iv © EAC  2023 – All rights reserved  
 Foreword  
Development of the East African Standards has been necessitated by the need for harmonizing requirements 
governing quality of products and services in the East African Community. It is envisaged that through 
harmonized standardization, trade barriers that are encountered when goods and services are exchanged 
within the Community will be removed.  
The Community has established an East African Standards Committee  (EASC)  mandated to develop and 
issue East African Standards  (EAS) . The Committee is composed of representatives of the National 
Standards Bodies in Partner States, together with the representatives from the public and private sector 
organizations  in the community .  
East African Standards are developed through  Technical Committees that are representative of key 
stakeholders including government, academia, consumer groups, private sector and other interested parties. 
Draft East African Standards are circulated to stakeholders through the National Standards Bodies in the 
Partner States. The comments received are discussed and incorporated before finalization of standards, in 
accordance with the Principles and procedures for development of East African Standards. XXXXXX.  
East African Standards are subject to review, to keep pace with technological advances. Users of the East 
African Standards are therefore expected to ensure that they always have the latest versions of the standards 
they are implementing .  
The committee responsible for this document is Technical Committee EASC/TC 004, Meat, poultry, game, 
eggs and related products.  
This second/third/… edition cancels and replaces the first/second/… edition (US nnn-n:yyyy), which has been technically 
revised.  
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be subject of patent 
rights. EAC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.  DEAS 1188 : 2023 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  v 
 Introduction  
A paragraph.  
The introduction  is an optional preliminary element used, if required, to give specific information or 
commentary about the technical content of the document, and about the reasons prompting its preparation. It 
shall not contain requirements.  
The introduction shall not be numbered unless there is a need to create numbered subdivisions. In this case, it 
shall be numbered 0, with subclauses being numbered 0.1, 0.2, etc. Any numbered figure, table, displayed 
formula or footnote shall be numbered normally beginning with 1.  
 DRAFT EAST AFRICAN STANDARD  DEAS 1188 : 2023 
 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  1 
 Edible natural casings — Specification  
1 Scope   
 This Draft East African Standard specifies the requirements sampling and test methods for edible natural 
casings fit for human consumption . Edible natural casings shall be derived from gazetted food animals in the 
EAC partner states  and presented as wet, dried and/or salted dried  
This standard does  not cover the casing from cellulose and collagens  
2 Normative references  
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes 
requirements of this document.  For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, 
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.  
CD-ARS 1287 , Transportation of meat and meat products — Requirements  
EAS 955, Hygienic requirements for the production of packaged meat products  
Codex Stan 192, General standard for food additives  
CAC/GL 50, General guidelines on sampling   
CAC/RCP 58, Code of hygiene practice for meat   
EAS 38, Labelling of prepackaged foods — Specification   
ISO 6579, Microbiology of food and animal feeds — Horizontal method for detection, enumeration and 
serotyping of Salmonella, Enumeration by a miniaturized most probable number technique  
ISO 6888 -1, Microbiology of food and animal feeds — Horizontal method for enumeration of Coagulase - 
positive staphylococci. (Staphylococcus aureus and other species), Detection and MPN technique for low 
numbers   
ISO 7251, Microbiology of food and animal feeds — Horizontal method for detection, enumeration of 
presumptive Escherichia coli – Most probable number technique   
ISO 21527 -1, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs —Horizontal method for the enumeration of 
yeasts and moulds — Part 1, Colony count technique in products with water activity greater than 0.95   
ISO 21527 -2, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs — Horizontal method for the enumeration of 
yeasts and moulds — Part 2: Colony count technique in products with water activity less than or equal to 0.95  
ISO 4832, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs — Horizontal method for the enumeration of 
coliforms — Colony -count technique   
ISO 4833 -1, Microbiology of the food chain – Horizontal method for the enumeration of microorganisms – Part 
1: Colony count at 30 °C by the pour plate technique    
2 © EAC  2023 – All rights reserved  
 ISO 4833 -2, Microbiology of the food chain – Horizontal method for the enumeration of microorganisms – Part 
2: Colony count at 30 °C by the surface plating technique   
EAS 12, Potable water — Specification   
EAS 35, Fortified food grade salt — Specification  
3 Terms and definitions  
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.  
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:  
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp  
3.1  
round  
animal casings derived from the small intestines of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs  
3.2  
middles  
animal casings derived from large intestines of cattle and pigs  
3.4  
bungs  
animal casing prepared from the caecum (beef bung and pig bung)   
3.5 
bladders  
animal casings prepared from the urinary bladders of pigs and cattle  
3.6 
weasands  
animal casing prepared from  the mucosa of oesophagus of cattle  
3.7 
runners  
animal casings prepared from small intestines of cattle  
3.8 
nodule  
small rounded structure   
3.9 
cicatrice  
scar of healed -up wound.   
3.10 
domestic  
small grease spot in the casing.  
3.11 
kink 
twisted  loop in the casing  
3.12 
rust 
black spot caused by putrefaction due to bacterial or fungal action   
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  3 
 3.13 
casing  
material that encloses the filling of a sausage  
4 Requirements  
4.1 General requirements  
Edible natural casings shall;  
a) be of uniform natural colour and free from defects like holes, mucus, dung, slime, blisters, lacerations, 
nodules.  
b) The casing wall shall be free from parasitic infestation and from cicatrix.  
c) The casing s shall be free from domestics,  
d) The casings shall be free from moulds or fungus infestation.  
e) The casings shall be free from salt burns and rust.  
f) be processed of potable water complying with EAS 12.  
g) be strong enough to resist the pressure produced by filling them with sausage mix  
h) be permeable to water vapour and gases, thus allowing fillings to dry  
i) absorb smoke for additional flavour and preservation  
j) expand or shrink firmly attached to the sausage mix  
k) be closed at the ends by tying or clipping  
l) free from foreign matter and odour  
m) Dull colour: (greyish or greenish instead of white or milky) due to defective cleaning.  
n) Nodules: due to esophagostoma (a round worm) in the intestines of sheep, goat and pigs  
o) Holes and lacerations: caused by negligence or rough handling of guts during processing.  
p) Salt burns: due to long storage of guts in the salt or packed loosely leaving the air inside. Such  
patches may also develop due to defective salt, which has calcium and magnesium ions.  
q) Defective grading like cicatrices, domestics, kink and rust  
r) be free from scars  
5 Contaminants  
5.1 Veterinary Drug Residues  
Edible natural casings shall comply with maximum residue limits for veterinary drugs in accordance with 
CX/MRL 2   
4 © EAC  2023 – All rights reserved  
 5.2 Pesticide residues  
Edible natural casings shall comply with maximum pesticide residues in accordance with the Codex 
Alimentarius pesticide residues database  
6 Hygiene  
Edible natural casings shall be handled, stored and transported following hygienic practices in accordance  
with CAC/RCP 58, EAS 39 and EAS 955  
6.1 Microbiology  
Edible natural casings shall comply with microbiological limits specified in Table 3, when tested in accordance  
with the  test methods given therein  
Table 3 — Microbiological requirements for edible natural casings  
S/No  Microorganism  Limits  Test method  
i.  Salmonella spp  Absent  ISO 6579  
ii.  Yeast and mould, cfu/g, max. 102 ISO 21527 -2 
iii.  E. coli , O157: H7 cfu/g, max . 102/absent  ISO  16654 
iv.  Staphylococcus aureus , cfu/g, max  103 ISO 6888 -1 
7 Food Additives  
Food additive if used in edible natural casings shall be in accordance with Codex Stan 192  
8 Packaging and Labelling  
8.1 Packaging  
Edible casings shall be packaged in food grade material which can safeguard the quality safety and integrity 
of the products . 
Edible natural casings may be packaged using the following methods in order to preserve the quality, extend  
shelf life and add the aroma. Any other method may also be used,  
a) Dry salt packed: Excess moisture is removed from the casings and packed in a semi -dry state. This  
type of packaging is usually appropriate for long distance travel and/or prolonged storage at ambient  
temperatures.  
b) Slush or pre -flushed packed: Casings are packaged in a water/salt mixture. The casings are very soft  
and flexible and do not require flushing prior to stuffing sausage.  
c) Pre-tube packed: Each strand of natural casing is shirred on a tube to allow one -step loading of the  
casings directly onto the stuffing horn  
8.2  Labelling  
In addition to the requirements of EAS 38, the following labelling requirements shall apply and shall be  legibly 
and indelibly marked.   
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  5 
 a) Common name of the product to be declared on the label as ‘’Edible natural casing'’  
b)  animal  species  from which the Edible  natural casing was derived e.g ‘cattle, goat, sheep and pig  
c) Net contents by weight (‘System International') units;  
d) Name and physical address of the manufacturer/distributor;  
e) Country of origin;  
f) Lot /batch identification;  
g) best before/use by date;  
h) Storage conditions  
i) Names of the ingredients used  
j) Packaging date /manufacturer date . 
Note 2  
Natural casings shall be stored in air tight containers and refrigerated (temperatures of between zero and four 
degrees Celsius  
9 Sampling  
Sampling shall be carried out in accordance with CAC/GL 50.   
6 © EAC  2023 – All rights reserved  
 Bibliography  
US 1866: 2018, Edible natural casings – Specifications  
 DEAS 1188 : 2023   
 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved