Are Sausage Casings Still Made From Intestines?

One of the most important aspects of a sausage link is its casing. You need a material that's light and stretchy, but ultimately strong enough to keep the meat within from exploding out of it while cooking. Historically, sausage casings have been made with a part of the intestines from animals such as sheep, goats, pigs, or cattle, but times have changed and food technology now allows us to use synthetic ones, only some of which are edible.

There are multiple types of synthetic casings available right now. The edible variety is made of collagen, which is animal-derived and can be extracted from cows, fish, poultry, and pigs alike. Then there's cellulose-based sausage casings, which aren't edible because they're made from plant fiber. Cellulose-based sausage casing is useful in that it's permeable, which means that flavor can penetrate the casing and adhere to the meat. There are also plastic casings for sausage, as well. Both cellulose and plastic casings are removed before consuming the sausages within. 

There are many supermarket sausage brands that use synthetic edible casings that you've probably consumed at one point in your life. Johnsonville, for example, known for its bratwursts and breakfast sausages, uses collagen casings for its pre-cooked items along with its breakfast links. (Its dinner sausages and fresh breakfast ones use natural casings, however.) Interestingly enough, vegan sausage casings exist as well. The vegan meat substitute brand, Impossible, uses sodium alginate, konjac gum, and guar gum in its casings to provide structure to its vegan sausages. These are edible as well.

Cellulose-based casings are good for things like dry-cured sausages and smoked sausages, but they're stripped away prior to packaging. Plastic casing is used for things like skinless hot dogs, which is also removed prior to packaging them. Some people aren't fans of natural casing sausages because the idea bothers them (intestines are offal, after all). But the truth is, they yield a superior snap when you take your first bite, one that a collagen or plant-based casing just can't match. This is coming from me, a seasoned Chicago dog connoisseur. Many of our stands prefer the use of natural casing hot dogs for that reason. But if you want a synthetic casing to your sausage, simply look at the ingredients on the label and see if it mentions collagen anywhere — if so, it's likely made with the synthetic version.