Product safety is a top consideration for food brands. A single compromised batch could put consumers at risk, lead to costly recalls, and jeopardize the reputation you’ve worked hard to build.
Surveying frozen foods for safety can be challenging because of frost and ice buildup, hidden contaminants, and the need to maintain constant temperatures throughout the examination process. That’s where high-speed food inspection systems for frozen foods come into the picture.
How Food Inspection Systems Work
Inspection systems are a critical feature of the food production line. They uncover contaminants, weed out uneven fill and package inconsistencies, and ensure the quality and safety of food products. These systems span everything from manual checks to microbiological testing, x-ray, and metal detection.
Traditional, standard-speed food inspection setups are often manual or semi-automatic. These slower systems are vulnerable to human errors and often slow down production.
In contrast, high-speed sorting technology is more reliable, precise, and consistent. It’s perfectly suited to frozen foods that need rapid, large-scale scanning. When you want to ensure maximum product safety without compromising output, high-speed automated inspection systems are the answer.
What Are High-Speed Food Inspection Systems?
High-speed systems have revolutionized the food inspection process. Their rapidity and accuracy help catch quality issues quickly without interfering with production. They also help reduce reliance on inefficient and costly manual inspections.
The high-speed food inspection line works a lot like an airport security scanner. Just as airport security systems survey luggage for risky objects, food inspection machinery scans food products for contaminants and packaging defects.
As the food items move down the conveyor belt, they pass within the inspection field of x-rays, cameras, and sensors. If the scanning mechanism detects a problem, like a stray object or faulty packaging, the system will automatically remove the defective item.
What Technologies Enable Rapid Food Inspection?
High-speed food inspection systems for frozen foods rely on several technologies, including x-ray, metal detection, and automated optical sorting. Some of these methods have been around for decades but work much more efficiently with today’s cutting-edge equipment.
Metal detectors quickly uncover stray metal bits, like broken or loose machinery parts that end up in foods. Food metal detectors use electromagnetic pulse induction (PI) to catch any metal that passes through the system’s electromagnetic field.
Food x-ray systems work similarly to medical x-rays. They can spot foreign objects, like pieces of metal, glass, stone, and plastic, inside sealed food products. As the item passes through the x-ray beam, the system checks the image for denser objects, which show up darker on the scan and ejects contaminated items.
Automated vision systems and optical sorters rely on high-speed cameras to check food items for defects. Similarly to facial recognition technology, this machinery can zero in on details like wrong shapes and colors.
Fast vs. Normal-Speed Food Scanning
Rapid food detection systems are ideally suited to high-volume food production. This advanced machinery works faster, more accurately, and more effectively than old-school technologies. It automates the inspection process, reducing the need for human sorters and inspectors, who can make mistakes because of distraction or fatigue.
Thanks to their efficiency and precision, high-speed detectors enhance food safety. They catch contaminants in real time and thus stop any compromised products from reaching the consumer.
Why Upgrade to High-Speed Food Inspection Equipment
If your facility produces frozen foods, you should look into high-speed inspection technology. Upgrading your product-scanning machinery helps reduce waste, prevent recalls, and speed up production without compromising safety.
Faster Food Production, Fewer Delays
Safety inspections often create a bottleneck in large-scale food production facilities. Older-generation food scanners may be unable to keep up with rapid production lines and thus slow down the output.
High-speed food inspection systems for frozen foods streamline the entire process. Unlike slow, inconsistent manual or semi-automated tools, rapid food scanners examine every product that goes down the conveyor belt. This advanced equipment can scan thousands of items per minute, so food safety no longer means sacrificing efficiency.
Let’s say your plant processes frozen fish at an output of 25,000 lbs per day, with safety control being the main factor that slows production. Assuming that a higher-speed food scanning system allows you to process 2,500 lbs (10%) more per day and sell your products at $3/lb, you could earn $7,500 more per day, or over $2.7M per year.
Precise Detection
High-speed metal and x-ray detectors can catch even the tiniest particles, like metal shards or ultra-small bone fragments. Advanced, modern equipment makes far fewer errors than human inspection or old-school machinery, making it a game-changer for products like frozen chicken nuggets, which often contain tiny bone fragments.
Safer Food Products
Fast inspection systems instantly take any contaminated products off the production line without stopping or slowing the line itself. Together with strict cold chain integrity and technologies like cryogenic freezing, advanced food scanning greatly reduces the chance of unsafe products reaching supermarket shelves.
A single contaminated food item that slips through the cracks could trigger wide-scale recalls and undermine your reputation. When you invest in food product safety, you’ll deal with fewer disruptions in the long run. Moreover, you may potentially avoid massive liability lawsuits. Above all, a commitment to food quality and safety protects your most valuable asset: brand trust.
Less Waste
Precise food sorting only removes faulty parts or products, preventing unnecessary waste. This can generate major savings if, for instance, your facility processes frozen vegetables, fruit, or berries. High-grade optical sorters are excellent at targeting discolored or moldy berries and removing them without throwing away good fruit.
In frozen fruit and vegetable processing, imprecise sorting may mean discarding around 5% of perfectly fine produce along with spoiled pieces. If your facility processes 20 million lbs per year, this could mean throwing away 1 million(!) lbs of sellable food and the occasional spoiled vegetable or fruit. If you buy produce at $1.50/lb, you could save $1.5 million a year just by avoiding food waste.
Should You Invest in High-Speed Food Scanning?
With all the benefits of new-generation food inspection systems, this cutting-edge equipment is no small expense. Will upgrading your food scanning equipment pay off for your facility, and how soon can you expect to recoup your investment?
Consider the Costs
Rapid food inspection systems cost significantly (around three times) more than their slower counterparts. Before you commit to an upgrade, do some number crunching and figure out whether you can handle the expense without overstraining your budget. You may look into various solutions, like cutting costs in other areas, waiting for a period with better cash flow, or even taking a loan.
In addition to the equipment cost, you’ll have to cover installation and maintenance. You may need to align your existing production line with the new machinery and train your staff to use it properly. Your equipment will also need regular calibration, upkeep, and software updates.
Look Into Long-Term Savings
Despite the initial cost of high-speed food inspection systems for frozen foods, manufacturers worldwide are upgrading to advanced x-ray machinery, vision systems, and other automated scanning equipment. That’s because long-term gains outweigh the upfront investment.
Faster, more efficient food scanning means a boost in production. Moreover, when a high-precision scanner detects a contaminated or defective product, it removes only the faulty item instead of wasting an entire batch.
Lower Labor Costs
Older inspection systems need a lot more supervision. Thus, you need to pay more workers, who can miss a contamination or overlook critical safety protocols. High-speed inspection systems may allow you to cut labor costs and/or reallocate workers to more complex tasks.
For example, suppose you run a frozen meat and fish processing plant and employ 12 inspection workers, each of whom earns $45,000 a year. If installing a new inspection system allows you to cut your team to six workers, you’d save $270,000 a year in labor costs alone.
Fewer Recalls and Liability Issues
A high-end food inspection system can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. This may seem expensive, but a liability lawsuit could dig much deeper into your pocket.
Not long ago, a well-known fast food chain faced a class action lawsuit following an E. coli outbreak associated with its products. The plaintiffs sought millions in compensation, and that’s without mentioning the lost revenue due to recalled batches and the damage to the brand reputation.
Anxious consumers may turn away from a brand embroiled in a food poisoning lawsuit, and it could take years to repair the harm. If upgrading to a new food inspection system prevents even one recall in five years, your investment will have likely paid for itself.
Keep Frozen Foods Safe With Forefront Technology by TDI Packsys
Streamline your production process, enhance food safety, and protect your brand image with advanced inspection tools by TDI Packsys. Contact us to learn more about our high-speed food inspection systems for frozen foods.
