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Best Practices for Metal Detection

Best Practices for Metal Detection

Best Practices For Metal Detection In The Food Industry

Metal detection in the food industry is a critical step in adhering to strict food safety guidelines.  Even a single contaminated product that reaches the marketplace can have a disastrous effect on your company.  So naturally, it is in your best interest to prevent it.  To begin, you can ensure the safety of your products by implementing HACCP plans.  Then, include the use of best practices for metal detection and/or x-ray inspection systems.  Follow these with regular testing to ensure your systems are functioning properly.

Within the food industry, there is a generally accepted set of best practices for metal detection that should be followed.  Doing so will help guarantee safety.  These principles involve choosing the proper type of metal detectors and incorporating them into your production line correctly.  Testing them on a regular basis using high quality test pieces is crucial as well.  These practices should be known and followed by all employees. A good food manufacturer will create a culture of safety.

Depending on the type of product you are manufacturing, you can choose from conveyor mounted, vertical or pipeline detectors.  In general, conveyors are used for testing packaged goods.  Vertical detectors for loose goods like snacks that are pumped into bags.  Finally, pipelines are used for liquids or loose, dense solids like meats and cheeses.

Detector Placement

No matter which type you use, your detectors should be placed at Critical Control Points (CCP).  This may be either after or near the end of the packaging process and should include an automatic rejection system.  This way, if a contaminant is detected within an individual package,  it will be instantly removed from the production line.  This safeguards the company and customer before anything can be shipped. There should also be some sort of alarm to indicate when the rejection bin is full.

Adjusting the sensitivity of your detector is crucial to ensure accuracy.  As part of the best practices for metal detection in the food industry, it is essential that the sensitivity of your detector be set for the conductivity of your product and readjusted when running different products.  Also, if you move your equipment within your facility, you may need to check and readjust the sensitivity and calibration relative to the product effect.

Testing

Equally important is following a schedule of regular tests.  This demonstrates that your detectors are operating properly and you are adhering to best practices for metal detection.  Ideally, testing should be done on a consistent, diligent basis.  You should always work to perform testing at short intervals.  Then, if a contamination is found, potentially affected products can be recalled before leaving the facility.  At the very least, it should be done at the beginning of each shift and between each change of product.

Metal detection in the food industry necessitates the use of quality test pieces in a number of sizes and compositions.  This will include, including ferrous, non-ferrous and stainless steel.  Regal Packaging Services provides pieces in a wide variety of shapes.  There are cards (laminate, acetal and thermoform), sticks (rods), whips and cylinders to name a few.  And 10 different contaminant materials include: Ferrous, Non-Ferrous, Stainless Steel 316, Soda-Lime Glass, Ceramic and Rubber.  We work with each customer to meet their particular needs and certify each individual test piece to meet industry requirements.

You can’t afford to take chances when it comes to the safety of your customers and that means ensuring the quality of your products.  With carefully designed and manufactured test pieces from Regal Packaging Services (Testrods.com) you’ll be able to keep your metal detectors working properly and know that you’re giving your customers only the very best.  That’s quality you can depend on and results that you can trust. And following best practice for metal detection gives your customer confidence in your product and company.

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Floatable Thermoform Test Cards

Some applications involve large tubs, vats, or some other type of product travel where it would be nice to have a test piece that floats. Once again, our thermoform cards provide the simplest solution. We simply insert some type of structure that forces the thermoform card to retain air, which, of course, is what makes it float. We have also manufactured floating rods, which are more difficult because there is less space to close in enough air to make the rod float but is doable.

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We took an ordinary plastic “chip clip” as defined by the customer and embedded the contaminant into the clip. The clip can be attached to the product on the line without damaging or opening the product for testing purposes.

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Bone is a difficult contaminant to find because it can vary widely based on the size, age, and calcium content (as well as feed used) of the animal. After working with several customers, Regal Packaging Services offers Pork, Beef and Chicken Bone Simulate. We have a small range of sizes at a variety of depths to simulate whatever you might expect to find in the product. Our recommendation (assuming your x-ray has visual display) is always to start with a multi-card. Using a multi-card gives you an easy way to test several sizes and depths to determine what matches the bone you’re using. Once you’ve made a comparison, testing the card against the bone you’re looking for, you can purchase a card with a single contaminant for regular testing.

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This small pill shaped test piece is used in a system with a vacuum tube that shoots the test piece through the aperture and returns it to the “home” base. Your system may never be like it, but the point is that we can make a customized solution no matter how unusual or impossible it might seem.

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As you may have seen in some of the other thermoform card descriptions, we can put nearly as many seeds as you can imagine on a single card. Pictured here you will find a wide variety of configurations and contaminants. Just let us know your specs: size of the card (up to 8” x 8”) along with size and type contaminant(s) and we’ll get you a quote as quickly as possible. Working with a multi-card is especially helpful when you are looking for multiple types of contaminants or when you want to determine what size of the same contaminant you are able to detect. In that event, once the size is chosen, you can order individual card(s) for regular, standard inspection and detection.

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There are a wide range of applications that require a test piece much longer than our standard 5” or 6” Testrods. We can make up to 3/8” x 34” or 1/2” x 34” rigid test pieces which can then be extended well beyond that length with a “handle” made of acetal cylinder larger than the 3/8” or 1/2” extension. In the photos, we used a 1” x 24” cylinder handle with a 3/8” x 24” inch extension.

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Test pieces can be made in a variety of sizes and given a pointed end in applications that require the contaminant (metal) to be inserted into a food package such as sugar or some other soft packaged food product. This allows the metal to reach the center of the aperture.

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Double-End Test Whips are also available, with metal in both ends. One consideration is to make certain that the whip is long enough to keep the metal on the non-testing side of the whip outside the metal free zone of your detector. If you insert, for instance one end of a whip with 2.0mm and 3.0mm Ferrous, you need to make certain that the 2.0mm metal doesn’t affect the detection of the 3.0mm metal (and vice versa). If the 3.0mm metal is inside the metal free zone, then the detector will be reacting to the 2.0 as well as the 3.0 as if they were combined.

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Multi-seed laminate test cards are designed for seeds 4.0mm or less. Multi-cards are useful in x-ray inspection to determine what sizes and types of contaminants your system can achieve. They can be especially useful in temperate environments and applications. If your application is rugged or wet, or your standards are larger, we recommend our thermoform multi-cards.

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We can simulate a variety of packaging in an application where you need the test piece to mimic what is traveling down the production line. In this case, we manufactured a clear “package” with the seed inside. With this method, the customer is able to reject the container appropriately, and, in the event the package is not rejected, it is easily seen by the line worker for manual removal.

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There are two types of “candy bars” pictured here – one similar to a flat candy bar and the other in a custom, near perfect copy of a candy bar. Since we’re now able to produce many variations using colored material, the copy was made in red (Fe), green (NFe) and blue (SS 316). We have the equipment to accomplish nearly anything you can imagine, and these kinds of designs are proof positive.

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Need a test piece that looks and handles like chicken nugget? We can do it. Interestingly enough, in this situation, our first version for the customer left too much “void” in the hole where the metal was placed. Given the sensitivity the customer system was using, the void had the effect of causing false positives. We were able to minimize that hole and supply the test piece with almost no void. It’s an example of how we can work with you before, during and after manufacturing to ensure all the specifications were met.

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Our standard acetal card is 2 1/4"x3 3/8,” but if needed, we can cut that size down to as small as 1 1/4” x 1 1/4” (with limited engraving). If a larger card or a card with multiple seeds is needed, see our Custom Shape-Size Blocks and Tablets.

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This distinctive test piece was created to mimic an actual hamburger patty. The customer supplied photos of the raw product, which we were able to reproduce and then we placed blue glove contaminant. Using this configuration, the customer was able to determine what size piece the vision scanning system could detect with the raw burger as the background. Had they simply used a blank card with the glove, the system could easily have achieved contaminant rejection, but they needed to be sure the system could “see” the blue against the product itself.

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A card with 100 seeds in a 10x10 configuration is used to place beneath whole chickens on a production line. This gives the x-ray system operator the ability not just to see IF the equipment can detect the metal in the card, but also WHERE the equipment can detect it. If there is a problem, the operator (or company) can make any changes necessary to achieve the end goal – safe chicken in this case. This card really highlights another valuable facet of our thermoform cards.

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In this scenario, a company processing sugar needed to have a “bag” simulated with the same weight in order to accurately fall through the reject mechanism. A lighter test piece had the risk of passing over the reject mechanism.

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Our standard cubes are 1” and 1.5,” but we can also manufacture other sizes if needed. The cubes shown here are 1/2" in dimensions. Cubes can be helpful in applications where a ball or cylinder may bounce or roll away during testing, making their retrieval difficult, or, in some cases, present a hazard to the product or production equipment.

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This is a test piece that is dropped into a bottle. It’s designed so that the metal appears in the center of the aperture when testing the metal detector. In addition, the round stop makes the test piece easily removable after testing.

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Hexagonal Shaped test pieces can be very useful in places where a cylinder or ball might roll or bounce around a production floor whether dropped by a line worker or ejection from a reject mechanism. Hexagons are similar in weight to the 1inch cylinders without having the smooth, rounded cylinder edge.

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Our customer in this plant needed a test piece with a thickness less than 5.0mm. Because we have the capacity to customize sizes and shapes, we were able to mill down a product that met their specifications. That’s always our goal, meeting the specs you need for your product, testing environment and contaminants.