GET READY FOR X-RAY Food legislation means that strict quality assurance methods must be employed

Dec. 2, 2009 - PRLog -- Like most food manufacturers, manufacturers of ready meals are under increasing pressure to improve productivity and increase efficiencies without compromising on quality, whilst ensuring they adhere to all food manufacturing legislation.  Food legislation means that strict quality assurance methods must be employed during the production process to ensure the product is safe for the consumer.

The UK is already by far the biggest market in Europe for ready meals, accounting for over 50 per cent of all sales.  Britons work some of the longest hours in Europe, and with increasing disposable incomes allowing them to spend more on leisure time in compensation, ready meals play an important role in catering to cash rich, time poor consumers.  Manufacturers must ensure they offer consumers convenient options and increasing choice.

With increasing production of ready meals to meet market demand, manufacturers must make use of the best inspection technology to prevent inconsistencies in products and the presence of contaminants, which can result in costly product recalls and damage to a brand’s reputation.  For ready meals producers who manufacture products in foil trays, inspection of packaged product can be more problematic than inspecting meals in plastic trays, due to the difficulty of inspecting product in metallised packaging.  

An X-ray machine should always be considered as the most effective option to inspect any foil or metallised packaged product.  X-ray machines are not affected by the common limitations of metal detectors, and they have the ability to work with products and packaging that metal detectors find difficult.  Foil packaged products with high conductivity (i.e. wet, salty products) do not cause any degradation in the performance of X-ray machines.

The main advantage of an X-ray machine is that it can find materials other than just metals.  X-ray inspection systems can detect contaminants such as metal, glass, stone, bone, and hard plastics. When compared to conventional inspection technology the cost/benefit ratio of X-ray inspection technology is extremely effective. X-ray technology is a more expensive means of inspecting products yet it provides much greater flexibility than other systems, such as metal detection.

An X-ray machine can simultaneously perform multiple inspections by its ability to identify improperly packaged product like: size, shape, length, fill level, component count and presence; all essential quality control elements for ready meals producers.  Systems will provide separate reject signals for each of these non-conformities so that contaminated and improperly packaged products can be kept separate.

The EU now requires all food businesses to implement a documented food safety management system based on the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), and leading European supermarkets are driving through X-ray inspection as a ‘Code of Practice’ for foil or metallised product packaging, meaning affordable, reliable and accurate X-ray technology is increasingly in demand.

X-ray systems are becoming increasingly popular as the top choice of inspection system due to their ability to reliably and efficiently perform the multiple functions of separate ‘traditional’ inspection systems simultaneously.  

The advanced X-ray systems available on the market today can detect for a wide variety of contaminants and are now able to checkweigh to a similar accuracy to that of a stand alone checkweigher.  Not only does this mean that manufacturers need not outlay for separate inspection machines, but this also offers obvious space savings over having to install two separate quality assurance systems.

Inspection technology specialists, such as Loma, have continued to develop their X-ray technology and offer X-ray systems that maximise sensitivity to contaminants, have automated set-up and can operate at high speeds.  The latest technology from Loma, the X-weigh, combines the best of both X-ray and checkweighing technology.  Food manufacturers can be assured that produce is safe and products are consistent in weight, size and shape.

Unlike traditional checkweighers, the X-weigh is unaffected by pack rate, speed, vibration, air turbulence, pack orientation or stability and requires little maintenance.  Loma equipment is designed to survive even the harshest of manufacturing environments and the X-weigh is no exception, incorporating a heavy duty conveyor design.

The Loma X-weigh allows for multi-lane checkweighing, which means a number of lines can be run through the system with each pack inspected according to its own target weight parameters.  X-weigh also offers combined weighing and object checking, which will ensure that packs with more than one weight zone are compliant for both overall pack weight and individual weight zones.  This makes it ideal for inspecting consumer-ready products such as packs of ready meals and snack products.

For manufacturers of ready meals, and especially those ready meals packaged in foil trays, X-ray is the clear choice – not only to achieve the most effective and accurate quality control procedures which overcome problems of metalised packaging, but also offering the cost and space savings over having two separate inspection systems.

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