Product inspection
is an important step in safety and quality control for food manufacturers. Millions of pounds of food are recalled every year due to the presence of foreign contaminants and the cost of these recalls can be very high for food producers. The average direct cost (including scrap, administration and lost sales) of a food product recall in the US is close to $10M but can end up being much higher, up to $100M in the case of a very large event.
Product inspection systems help ensure that contaminated products never leave the factory. They also help ensure that contaminants are identified and removed early in processing to avoid damaging expensive downstream equipment.
Product inspection systems can also play a part in a food manufacturer’s regulatory compliance responsibilities, where they must build food safety into their processes so that issues can be prevented from occurring. Some retailers go a step further and will define which type of product inspection system should be used and at what point in the production process; even specifying when to use X-ray instead of metal detection.
Contaminants or foreign bodies are not the only concern for product inspection. Undeclared allergens or simply incorrect labelling can result in similar costly recalls, and product inspection systems can also be used for checking the quantities and components in more complex food products, like meal kits, to avoid over or undersupply of a component.
Product Inspection
Product inspection systems like metal detectors and X-ray inspection can detect metal contaminants or, in the case of the latter, glass and stones and high-density objects that the metal detector cannot see. X-ray inspection can also be used to check product integrity as part of quality control.
Common contaminants are metal shavings from processing activities like chopping or grinding, machine parts during servicing, plastics from PPE, glass from broken packaging and wood shavings from pallets.
Introducing product inspection for raw materials on collection can be very important as many products are harvested from fields where there may be contaminants present, like golf balls or buckshot. If such objects enter machinery, they can cause very costly damage as well as wasted batches of contaminated foods. Stones, glass and metal debris from farming equipment are all frequently found in fields and may be collected with produce.
Your product inspection partner will help guide as what is the most appropriate system for your specific application and how to get the most out of your product inspection equipment, boosting your productivity and safety standards and protecting your brand.
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