Quality assurance is Paramount

Dec. 2, 2009 - PRLog -- Paramount 21 Ltd, the family owned frozen food manufacturing company, have chosen Loma Systems, world leader in the design and manufacture of inspection systems, to help maintain its high food safety standards in production. The company demanded a very high specification from their safety inspection equipment, which Loma Systems achieved.

Paramount, based in Heathfield, South Devon, has grown to become a renowned name in the seafood market and a respected brand in the foodservice and retail industries. The company has expanded rapidly from its roots of packing prawns, and has developed an extensive range of fishcakes, fish pies and value added seafood products, such as Blanchbait and Whitebait, specifically for the catering industry.

The company is dedicated to producing top quality products that meet all food safety and legal HACCP requirements. From raw materials through to the dispatch of finished products, quality is closely monitored at every stage.

Paramount is known for creating quality recipes, which are hand-made in Devon using only the finest natural ingredients. This has been demonstrated through the many awards they have won, including Great Taste Awards, British Frozen Food Federation Awards and Seafish Awards.  Through its dedication to quality and testing, Paramount has held its BRC (British Retail Consortium) Certification for over 10 years.

To ensure premium quality is maintained, and in keeping with HACCP quality control, Paramount required a metal detector to inspect a new range. Paramount was asked if they could supply seafood in 10 kg boxes to help reduce packaging, ensuring that a safety inspection point was placed at the end of the production line to identify contaminants.

Paramount knew that the precise nature of their contaminant specification, coupled with the large box size and the extremely low temperature of the products, meant that it would be exceptionally difficult for an inspection system to reliably meet this requirement.

Gary Dark, Production Engineer at Paramount, explains, “A new customer required the highest specification from our metal detector ensuring identification of very small contaminants from a large box of seafood. After a trial including equipment from another supplier, we realised the Loma Systems equipment was the best for us.”

Loma Systems specified their IQ3 Metal Detector with a 450mm x 450mm aperture to ensure all box sizes of frozen food could fit through the tunnel. Loma Systems‘ IQ3 Metal Detector is in a class of its own, this next generation system offers market leading sensitivity and is environmentally tougher than anything else currently on the market so it can survive in even the harshest production environments.

As all of Paramount’s products are frozen down to –20oC, this could have caused further complications. However, the IQ3 is IP69K manufactured for the harshest of environments. The machine is built from robust stainless steel and Loma's build quality ensures long, reliable performance.

The system is designed to exceed any ‘harsh environment’ cleaning specification and has enhanced protection for high or low temperature washdown. Loma’s ‘Designed to Survive’ ethos is reflected throughout their product range as the company prides itself on understanding the specific needs of industrial food production.

Gary continues, “It is important to us that we minimise the risk of any possible contaminants getting into our products. However, with our quality inspection equipment we can have complete peace of mind that our food is safe.”

Furthermore, the IQ3 is a true Automatic Variable Frequency machine.  It can operate at any frequency between 40kHz and 900kHz and has the ability to select the ‘correct’ operating frequency in seconds, eliminating the past restrictions caused by single frequency and ‘limited frequency’ detectors. This is a real benefit in challenging applications like the one at Paramount.


Paramount works incredibly hard to create delicious recipes and by quickly freezing each dish they are able to capture the wonderful flavours and nutrients, without having to use unnecessary additives and preservatives. However, such frozen products can cause reading abnormalities on any metal detector and have been traditionally difficult to inspect due to high product effect. The variable frequency capability of the IQ3 allows operators to identify the point at which product effect is minimal but contaminant detection is at its strongest.

The IQ3 is engineered for quick, simple set up, unbeatable performance and is full of technical innovation and the machine is extremely easy to install. Gary comments, “I installed the machine myself with no problems and it was quickly up and running. I was even more impressed with Loma Systems, as the machine was custom-built, and delivered before time and on budget.

The site already uses a Loma Systems 6000 Combo Checkweigher and Metal Detector system, which was purchased nearly seven years ago. The reliability of the machine and Loma’s dependable maintenance service meant that Paramount had no concerns choosing another machine from Loma.

With its extensive portfolio of complementary weighing and inspection technologies, and its strong focus on the needs of the Food Industry, Loma is uniquely resourced to provide systems that not only meet the specific quality assurance needs of its customers today, but offer realistic potential for expansion or enhancement to meet the changing needs of tomorrow.

For more information about Loma please visit our website:
www.loma.com or telephone +44 (0) 1252 893300 or email sales@loma.co.uk

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World leaders in designing, supplying and installing metal detection systems, Checkweighers and X-ray Inspection equipment to the Food and Pharmaceutical industries.