Food Marketing & Technology - India May 2019 | Page 38

Processing
DETECTION OF FOREIGN
OBJECTS IN FOOD
BY: ANURAG MISHRA *
A
nything that has been found in
food which is not reasonably
expected to be found by a
consumer during consumption refers
to foreign objects in food. This makes
the food unfit for consumption. For
example, things like stones, rocks,
glass, hard plastic, or sharp material
may wind up in food. As well as some
ingredients that are not supposed to be
in consumable food items or were not
listed as an ingredient on the label and
the consumer did not expect them to be
present in food, would be considered
as a foreign object.
Presence of foreign objects in food
increases the risk of consumer
dissatisfaction,
regulatory
risk,
chances of a product recall, and in
some instances it may damage the
brand image. As per reports, a total of
40+ extraneous material recalls were
issued in the U.S. in 2017, with metal
(12) and plastic (11) contaminations
topping the list in this category.
Last year, more than 60,000 kilograms
of chicken nuggets were recalled after
famous nugget manufacturer found
out that their nuggets might have
bits of hard plastic inside them. The
USDA fielded complaints from naive
nugget consumers who said they’d
found strips of plastic up to about 20
millimetres long inside their chicken.
After this incident, the company
mentioned in a statement that they
had installed sufficient numbers of
metal detectors and the nuggets were
run through those detectors before
reaching out to the consumers, but
who knew that these detectors would
be unable to catch the plastic pieces.
To avoid such issues, manufacturers
must deploy a suitable mechanism
to detect and eliminate any possible
foreign object in the finished goods.
Selection of the mechanism must be
based out of basic risk assessment and
the type of possible foreign object in
the entire process.
Development in modern technology
has given some robust options to detect
and eliminate foreign objects from
the finished/semi-finished goods. In
recent years these options seem to be
very effective and are being used all
across the globe. Metal detectors, X-ray
systems and other detection systems
play a significant role in helping food
processors prevent recalls that are
tied to foreign objects such as: metal;
plastics; and other issues that are not
caused by pathogens or allergens.
Some of the available and effective
options are mentioned below:
Metal Detectors: With an increased
focus on product quality and the
avoidance of contamination, the metal
detector has turned up as a significant
inspection tool in the food industry. A
metal detector is a sophisticated piece
of equipment used to detect metal
contamination in the product.
Metal detectors are the most common
and widely used method to detect
foreign objects in the food industry,
but as the examples mentioned above,
they cannot control a large spectrum
of non-metal materials like plastics.
When using this type of equipment,
metal objects within a food product
produce an unbalance in a balanced
radio frequency or magnetic field.
Metal Detectors can detect very thin
metallic objects like metal rust and
aluminium foil. The type, shape and
orientation of metal play an important
Food Marketing & Technology
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May 2019
role in the effectiveness of detection.
Factors like the position of the metal
in the tunnel, type of product scanned,
packaging material and environmental
conditions
like
vibration
are
often considered as limitations to
appropriate detection.
Metal detectors are easy to operate,
typically have low maintenance costs
and are cheaper than other alternatives.
With this attribute, metal detectors can
be placed at any point in the operation.
The positioning of the detector must be
done as per the risk in the process flow.
A metal detector placed at the end of
a production line, as the last barrier to
guarantee that metal contaminants do
not reach the consumer, is an obvious
move. But putting an additional
metal detector at the beginning of the
process will minimize the risk as well
as reducing the possible wear and tear
in the equipment down the line.
Latest metal detector technology
offers greater detection capabilities
and easier operation from colour
touch screen controls. The new
technology in metal detection not only
enables detection of very small metal
pieces; it also reduces false rejects to
virtually zero. Today, metal detection
technology can rival X-ray inspection
in some of the toughest contamination