Patent ID: 7488243

Claim:
A method for producing encased products, comprising: positioning a portion of a generally tubular horn having a product channel therethrough inside a generally tubular netting chute; forming an edible and/or dissolvable generally flat roll of casing material into a generally tubular casing that extends in an axial direction about the horn; pumping food emulsion through the horn; encasing a desired amount of the food emulsion in a portion of the generally tubular casing material as the food emulsion exits the horn; automatically electronically controlling activation and movement of a mechanism for repeatedly drawing defined short lengths of a sleeve of netting material held on the netting chute forward at a discharge end portion of the netting chute during the pumping step; automatically electronically controlling activation and movement of a mechanism for braking the netting material proximate the discharge end portion of the netting chute after the drawing step; enclosing the encased food emulsion in the netting material; and automatically shaping a series of netting enclosed encased food emulsion products to a desired consistent shape based at least in part on the drawing, braking and pumping steps.