Winning The Casing Game:
Vector Packaging is batting a thousand at Tyson Food's Independence Plant, thanks to top-notch products and services.

Baseball lovers like to refer to the sport as a "game of inches," while referring to football as a "game of yards."

It’s a "game of millimeters" at Tyson Foods - Independence, an Independence, IA based processor of whole and sliced hams, turkey products, and luncheon meats.

A key component of Iowa Ham’s game plan is Vector's film for its strength and durability.

"With the Vector film, everything is sized by millimeters layflat," notes Glen Meskimen, Tyson Foods - Independence's director of purchasing. "Vector is a shirred casing that offers impeccable size control."

He points out that a 225-mm layflat casing is sized plus or minus one to two millimeters.

"That is very tight," Meskimen observes, adding that when Tyson Foods - Independence runs the Vector film on its stuffing equipment, operators don’t have to readjust the equipment because the layflat hardly varies case after case, and day after day.

"There are no delamination problems in the cook cycle and no splitting problems on the double clipper units," he says. "The casing comes in shirrs, which we load directly on the double clipper units. Because the casing shrinks less end to end during cook than competitor’s casings, we get more logs from the same amount of casing on a shirr."

Although the shelf life of finished product made in Vector is comparable to that of its competitors, Meskimen points out that Vector’s adhesion to the finished product is superior.

Dave McCaffrey, Vector’s vice president and general manager, attributes the high quality, consistent adhesion in part to the film’s size control, as well as to its physical makeup.

"The better the size control, the better the quality of the overall product," McCaffrey says. "In addition, Vector casings are very strong although lighter in gauge than our competition. The strength of our product comes from polyamide [nylon]. So, although our casings are stronger, the lighter gauge allows the casing to stretch into the corners of metal molds more easily than stiffer, heavier films. This helps to make molded products with square corners and no hard wrinkles, which ensures a more attractive product for retail and higher slicing yields in logs."

Vector Packaging uses a patented meat-cling process to make casings for cook-in products. "Our unique cling allows the processor to go through the cook/chill cycle without the casing pulling away from the product," he says. "All cook-in plastic casings have cling, but ours is the most consistent due to a patented second step we take after the extrusion of Vector film. Most of our competitors use a softer, tackier polymer on the inside layer of their casings to achieve cling. The Vector method allows the casing to adhere to the product during cook, chill, and extended refrigerated storage. It still strips easily, leaving a smooth, dry meat surface and consistently high yields."

Tyson Foods - Independence couldn’t ask for much more, particularly in light of Meskimen’s insights on Vector’s service. "Their service is phenomenal," Meskimen says. "Our Vector representative and sales manager are available to us at a minute’s notice. They warehouse Vector casings right in our community, so it’s available any time we want it."

But just like fielding a double play, providing that level of service requires a skill level that isn’t as easy to employ as it appears. "We hire people with experience in the industry who have strong technical backgrounds," McCaffrey explains. "We know that our people can work on any aspect in the processing plant at any time. It gives us more versatility and provides value to our customers."

Vector Packaging’s batting average is sure to make the firm an all-star player – that is if Tyson Foods - Independence is any indication.