Detection, inspection and quality optimisation

14 September 2015



Detection, inspection and quality optimisation


Detection, inspection and quality optimisation

New technologies are always having a big impact on the food industry; this time, food inspection equipment sees some much-needed development. Christy Draus, marketing manager at Eagle Product Inspection, details the factors at hand in product inspection, quality control and food safety.

Global snack sales totalled $374 billion between March 2013-14: a yearly increase of 2%. It is now estimated that on average, 24% of our daily calorie intake comes from snacks. As public scrutiny of food manufacturers continues to escalate, and consumers increasingly turn to social media to voice their complaints, snack processors have become more reliant than ever on food inspection equipment.
[subhead] Challenging factors
Many snack applications can prove challenging for traditional product inspection equipment, for various reasons.
- Contaminants. Snacks often contain a variety of ingredients that are susceptible to different types of contaminants. Fruits, vegetables and nuts may be contaminated with stones from the farm, for example, while dairy products can be suspect to metal from processing.
- High salt content. Many snacks, such as nuts and potato chips, contain high doses of salt and are therefore conductive. When they pass through a metal detector, they can create a disturbance of the detection field, triggering false rejects.
- Metal packaging. Metalized film and foil are used to package various snacks, including energy bars and chocolate. Inspecting these products using metal detectors can mean reductions in the levels of achievable sensitivity.
- Variations in product density. Many snacks, such as bags of trail mix and granola bars, contain high variations in density due of the multitudes of ingredients they contain. This creates busy x-ray images and proves challenging for traditional x-ray inspection systems.
- Quality assurance. Proper portioning and seal integrity are another two major concerns of snack manufacturers. Individual bars, and boxes with multiple bars, can be underweight, overweight, deformed or broken. Bits of food can also be trapped in product seals, creating faulty seals and causing food spoilage.

Metal detection versus x-ray inspection: which one wins?
Different snacks and packaging types require different product inspection solutions, and selecting the right system is crucial for guaranteeing maximum detection sensitivity and high throughput. So, which technology is the ideal contaminant detection solution?

 

  • Metal detection. For cost-effectiveness, metal detectors usually offer the best solution for the detection of ferrous and non-ferrous metal, stainless steel and aluminium contaminants. A metal detection search head also takes up less space than an x-ray inspection system.
  • X-ray inspection. X-ray inspection systems are just as adept as metal detectors at finding metal, and they provide unrivalled detection of non-metallic contaminants, including glass, mineral stone, calcified bone and high-density plastics. The latest x-ray inspection equipment is also capable of performing additional quality assurance checks, such as measuring mass, checking fill levels, and detecting missing and damaged products, as well as identifying seasoning agglomerates such as flavour or powder lumps. Unlike traditional inspection systems, the accuracy of x-ray food inspection equipment isn't affected by freeze/thaw conditions, moisture or salinity, and metal packaging has no effect on sensitivity of detection.
  • Dual energy x-ray technology. Standard x-ray systems are incapable of detecting flat glass or low-density plastics, rubber, stones and rocks in most foods, and finding physical contaminants in products with complex density levels can also prove challenging. However, material discrimination x-rays (MDX) use dual energy to discriminate materials by their atomic numbers, and not by density alone. This enhances the traditional x-ray inspection, and enables the detection of historically undetectable inorganic contaminants (such as stones, calcified bone and flat glass) in multiple-textured products.

Quality optimisation with one machine
Advanced x-ray food inspection equipment is capable of providing safety and quality assurance at every stage of production for unpackaged and packaged snack applications. It eliminates the need for multiple inspection machines on one line, by performing the following quality checks:

  1. Fill level. Modern x-ray inspection systems allow manufacturers to set maximum and minimum fill levels, and will reject products that fall outside these preset parameters.
  2. Component counts. X-ray inspection equipment is simultaneously capable of detecting missing, deformed or broken snacks. By counting cookies and crackers that cannot be seen or counted by cameras or human eyesight, systems can help to reduce customer complaints.
  3. Seal integrity. X-ray machines are capable of preventing food spoilage by identifying obstructions in packaging seals. Ensuring seal integrity is an important step in the prevention of microbiological contamination and any resulting product recall this could cause.
  4. Mass measurement. X-ray food inspection systems can help snack manufacturers exert better quality control, by measuring overall and zoned mass. Mass measurement is particularly effective on high-speed lines, where traditional in-line weighing systems may not be practical or offer the same level of accuracy.

 



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