Reliably being able to detect metal contaminants embedded within your packaged goods before they are made available for customers to purchase is a critical step in any well-functioning food production line. The consequence of a recall resulting from a contamination being identified for both your business and for your customers is immense: compromised food safety, loss-of-trust from consumers in your brand, potentially irreparable brand damage, and major financial losses, to name but a few.
So, being able to detect and remove contaminated product before it leaves your production facility is critical to avoid these operational pitfalls, and with the right solution your operations are safeguarded against them. Particularly, if your production lines contain ferrous, non-ferrous, or stainless steel parts it is only natural over time for ware-and-tare to affect these operational parts, resulting in contaminations you might not have expected.https://diverseco.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Fortress-MD-baked-goods-3.jpg
Two Separate Lines, Two Similar Metal Detectors
A recent customer of ours who specialises in the manufacturing and production of an assortment of baked goods approached us with concerns over their existing operations’ ability to detect and subsequently reject metal contaminants.
- It’s common that these conversations begin with anxiety, as for even medium or large-scale manufacturers, the potential consequences of missing even a single metal contaminant are major.
We were all too happy to assess their production lines and determine the right metal detection solution. What was requested of us was to provide two solutions, as the customer had two separate production lines that required metal detection, for different baked goods. The first was for pancakes and crumpets, and the second was for pikelets. Each of these production lines contained ‘wet’ products which themselves require specific configurations for the metal detectors to operate effectively with, owing to the effect moisture (especially in combination with high salt content) has on electrical conductivity – a critical consideration for metal detection.
In addition to the ‘wet’ product profile, the detection requirements for metal contaminants were:
- 1mm ferrous;
- 1.5mm non-ferrous; and
- 2.5mm stainless steel
Our team of inspection experts determined that the ideal solution for this customer were two Fortress Interceptor Metal Detectors. The detection was easily achieved using the Fortress Interceptor metal detector which utilizes simultaneous multi-frequency operation, giving vast improvement for detection especially with ‘wet’ product. The systems were placed prior to the checkweighing component of the customer’s production lines and would reject any contaminated product into a chute, protecting their operations against a costly and brand damaging recall.
Both production lines were able to be fitted with a Fortress Interceptor – the products themselves were highly similar, with the exception of the manufacturing process being different, hence the separate production line.
As the Australian distributors, systems integrators, and service agents for Fortress Technology’s range of metal detectors, we welcome any questions you have regarding how your operations can detect and reject contaminations in your food production lines.
