Maintaining food safety and quality control through thorough inspection is a top priority for producers. Systems that combine checkweighers with metal detectors offer unique advantages by simplifying two essential steps in food safety compliance: weight verification and contaminant detection.
Checkweighers verify that a food product contains exactly the amount specified on the packaging, ensuring consistent serving sizes and package weight. Metal detectors provide a final check for unnoticed contamination, such as pieces of equipment breaking off into food items. These two systems are indispensable in avoiding profit loss due to product giveaway and safety recalls.
Streamlining inspections with a combination system provides the highest level of food safety. By integrating a checkweigher and metal detector into one system, end-of-the-line quality control is made faster and easier to monitor for accuracy.
General Benefits of Combination Systems
There are a few key benefits to combination systems that industrial food preparation sites should consider.
Space Efficiency
Combination systems offer a reduced footprint, saving facilities up to 20-25% on floor space. This solution is ideal for smaller production spaces and is easier to integrate into existing lines than two separate machines.
Cost Effectiveness
A combination unit shares hardware components, so it costs less overall than two new machines. Installation costs are also lower because it takes half the work, and maintenance expenses will follow suit with single-source servicing.
Operational Advantages
These systems are also easier to operate because they use one control interface and offer unified data management and reporting. This simplifies the operators’ training requirements and streamlines the production flow by decreasing transition points.
Enhanced Quality Control
Combination systems improve quality control procedures by creating a comprehensive critical control point (CCP) where operators check two important markers of food safety at once. These machines also allow for separate product rejection streams depending on whether an item is underweight or contaminated with metal.
Increasing the efficiency of this CCP makes it easier to comply with retailer and regulatory requirements.
Technical Considerations
There are a few technical factors to consider when implementing combination checkweighers and metal detectors.
System Integration Challenges
The initial synchronization of detection and weighing processes can take some trial and error. Balancing sensitivity requirements and product effect issues for both functions can be difficult. However, once established, these systems optimize product handling by streamlining multiple stages into one checkpoint.
Product Handling Requirements
Operators must learn the proper spacing and orientation of items for accurate inspection, which may be difficult for unstable or lightweight products. To ensure easy, accurate readings, it is helpful to select models where the inline inspection belt design prioritizes smooth product flow and minimizes product disturbance.
It’s also important to consider the rejection mechanisms and choose models around the product type, as air blasts, for example, may not be as effective as a pusher with heavier items.
Technology Options
Technological advancements are available to tailor combination units to their operators’ needs. For instance, when choosing a metal detector, looking for one with multi-frequency detection capabilities is best. Choose checkweighers with high-accuracy weight technologies and look for IP65/69K-rated systems for washdown environments.
Many operators also prefer intuitive touchscreen systems.
Industry-Specific Applications
A wide range of industries can benefit from combination checkweighers with metal detectors, though there are factors unique to each industry to consider.
Meat, Poultry, and Fish
For meat, poultry, and fish processors, a common challenge is how moisture and salt contents can interfere with the accuracy of a metal detector and demand additional hygiene measures. An IP65/69K washdown-rated combination system can be the best choice for these products, as it is easy to clean and helps prevent moisture or salt from accumulating and further affecting weight.
The variations in weight across hand-processed meat, poultry, and fish make highly accurate checkweighers indispensable. For hand-prepared items, it is vital that the checkweigher and metal detector are at the end of the preparation line to catch any contamination that occurs during preparation. These systems can protect food processors from recalls that may damage their reputation among consumers.
Metal contamination recalls have affected two major chicken producers in the last year. These disruptions can interrupt profit margins and deter future customers, so preventative measures are best.
Bakery and Snack Foods
Those specializing in baked goods and snack foods understand the high-speed production requirements of these environments. A combined checkweigher and metal detector can speed up the quality control process, but it is important to consider the variation in product densities across these kinds of foods. Operators should diligently recalibrate the system in between product types.
Ensuring accurate weights is vital for retail-packaged goods because of the importance of serving size consistency and avoiding product giveaway.
Convenience Foods and Ready Meals
Checkweighers with metal detectors are a viable option for producing and packaging convenience foods, but it is vital to calibrate the system to account for foil-tray products. Additionally, complex packaging with metalized films can interfere with traditional metal detectors, so x-ray inspection systems can be a better option.
By implementing end-of-line quality assurance measures, ready meal manufacturers can ensure accurate weights, detect contamination, and avoid recalls for sealed products.
Snack foods such as preserved meats and granola bars have been recalled due to metal contamination in the last year, so investing in consistent safety and quality control processes is vital.
Dairy Products
Dairy products are subject to strict weighing regulations because weight can impact their stability and shelf life. These products have some of the lowest shelf lives of any processed food, and minor inaccuracies in packaging can leave the public vulnerable to unsafe food storage practices.
It is vital for manufacturers to accurately weigh dairy items while accounting for the product effect of high-moisture items (which may interfere with the x-ray process if the system is incorrectly calibrated).
As production and packaging typically take place in cold, damp environments, durable combination systems rated for washdowns are essential. These environments can cause moisture to accumulate on in-line systems faster than in drier industries, so it is vital to use precise checkweighers and calibrate them frequently.
Best Practices for Implementation
There are a few key things to keep in mind when implementing a combined system.
Installation Considerations
Before installing checkweighers with metal detectors, assessing the production line and planning a seamless integration is critical. Production staff should identify the optimal placement (usually at the end of the production line) to maximize effectiveness. As many food production sites expose equipment to some moisture, it is important to ensure that the installation follows environmental and electrical safety regulations.
Calibration and Validation
Operators must regularly calibrate and test the protocols for both the checkweigher and metal detection processes. Creating comprehensive validation procedures for use between product types is also vital. Operators can use test pieces to check and adjust the system’s weight standards.
Sites should carefully train their operators on proper documentation to keep up with record-keeping requirements in the industry.
Data Management and Reporting
Many industries use automated systems to stay on top of the collection and analysis of rejection data. These systems provide real-time data capture and analysis, which can assist in creating audit trails for compliance documentation.
Combination checkweighers and metal detectors offer integration with existing production management systems for easy monitoring. A due diligence kit includes systems for recording and analyzing weight and contamination and must be tamper-proof to comply with food safety regulations.
Future Trends and Innovations
As weight and contamination checking technology advances, checkweighers with metal detectors are at the forefront of innovation.
Advanced Technology Integration
While not yet a common practice, using AI to enhance detection is a possible direction for the future of combined systems. These systems will also have enhanced data analytics capabilities to recognize patterns in product rejections and improve compliance.
Some systems already offer remote monitoring and servicing options to maintain top-quality production around the clock. Producers can integrate these features with existing quality management systems and due diligence kits.
As technology advances, updating an existing combined system may be easier and less costly than overhauling two separate systems.
Regulatory Evolution
Combination checkweighers and metal detectors offer more protection against changing compliance regulations, as they ensure accurate weight recording and can help prevent contamination and recalls. These systems allow food production sites to meet industry standards set by the FDA and FSMA.
Combination systems offer rigorous quality control and safety measures that may become the standard expectation of retailers and consumers. Producers without combination systems may eventually struggle to keep up with the increasing demand for verifiable food safety records.
TDI Packsys Provides Checkweighers With Metal Detectors
Investing in a combination checkweigher and metal detector system enhances your site’s quality control and safety compliance while improving efficiency. Operators must only navigate one streamlined process rather than using two systems to verify weight and check for metal contamination.
Explore the revolutionary options for checkweighers with metal detectors by TDI Packsys to find the most refined systems available.
Prevent costly recalls and product giveaways by elevating your food safety and quality control processes with a combined system today.
