Guarantee Food Safety and Quality with X-ray Inspection

Food safety consists of the analysis and control of biological, chemical or physical hazards in the food production and supply chain. There are many different inspection systems that analyze food products for different types of hazards. With X-ray inspection systems you can detect the most hazardous physical contaminants and remove them from your production line before they get to the consumers.

Food quality, on the other hand, refers to the features that make the product meet the consumers’ expectations, but also provides value for their money and is profitable for the food producer, of course.

These product features can be related to appearance (color, shape, and integrity), texture, flavor (odor and taste) or packaging, among others. Traceability is also an important part of the process to ensure overall food quality.

Both, food safety and quality can be achieved with comprehensive X-ray inspection that enables food producers to detect any, not just metallic, physical contaminations inside the food product and possible quality defects that might affect the consumer expectations or damage the food brand.

Improving Food Safety and Quality

Food X-ray inspection enables food producers to record their production and further improve it based on the inspection results and traceability. For example, food producers might encounter continuous quality problems such as broken products or missing pieces of products – X-ray detects these quality defects, and based on the information gathered, the producer is able to do corrective actions in their production process and reduce the number of consumer complaints.

X-ray inspection is also a very flexible inspection method; it allows food producers to e.g. change the packaging material or type without having to change the inspection system itself. X-ray inspection technology is based on inspecting the density variations inside the product, which means that it will not be disturbed by metallic packaging materials, such as cans or foiled films. This is a huge advantage in X-ray systems compared to metal detectors.

Achieve the Highest Level of Food Safety and Quality

To get the most value out of any inspection system, it is necessary to train and familiarize all users with the system and its functions. Especially with an X-ray inspection system, it is important to fully utilize its food safety and quality inspection capabilities and functions.

Primary packaging inspection has proven to be the most effective way to reach the highest food safety level since inspecting each product individually provides the best detection rate. Also, it enables the use of different quality inspection functions that enhance food quality by detecting and rejecting any non-conforming products out of the production line.

You can read more about the 7 reasons why food producers should inspect primary packaged products here.