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 38 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