Baking & Snack - December 2019 - 62

METAL DETECTION / X-RAY

harvested from crops. "At the end, they can do a final
check for contaminants, as well as verify mass and any
damaged or missing components inside closed packages," Ms. Crowley said.
For extra food safety on certain high-speed lines,
some direct-store-delivery bakeries place a metal detector prior to slicing and another after packaging. "If one
goes down, it can shut down a production line quite
quickly," Mr. Garr said. "Generally speaking, for fresh
bread, there is no sitting on a shelf in a warehouse. It
goes from packaging and the truck to retailers."

Watching out for QC

Multifrequency systems
detect thin metal
contaminants in such
low-profile snacks as
cookies and snack bars.
Fortress Technology

ingredient introduction protects machinery by catching foreign materials before they can be broken up
into smaller pieces by machinery," Mr. Grube said.
"Inspection after packaging ensures that no foreign materials such as equipment parts pass on to the consumer
and that no product is missing, misshaped or broken."
Such technology also identifies potential upstream
maintenance issues by relying on smaller, more sensitive
apertures to inspect products or a product stream. "That
will improve quality by detecting smaller pieces in a dryproduct stream using an inline system, where in the end,
these systems might not catch the smallest of pieces,"
Mr. Garr explained.
Moreover, locating these devices at various critical
control points can detect physical contaminants more
quickly. "Gravity-flow metal detectors placed at the beginning of the line to inspect incoming ingredients can
eliminate any contaminated product before processing
begins," said Sarrina Crowley, marketing communications manager, Mettler Toledo. "At midpoint, a metal detector can catch any product that may become contaminated by slivers of broken mixers or other equipment,
and at the end of the line, a final check is useful on the
packaged product to ensure safety and brand protection."
She added that X-ray systems along the line can also
look for other types of dense physical contaminants such
as stones that may have been mixed with ingredients

62 Baking & Snack December 2019 / www.bakingandsnack.com

Using inspection equipment reinforces quality control because it not only detects foreign material but also checks for
missing, misshapened or broken products in some cases.
"Any product that is not up to quality control standards can
be automatically diverted from the line," Mr. Grube said.
Metal detection is often paired with vision systems,
which provide quality control by monitoring the different steps of the process and by rejecting unsatisfactory
products just prior to packaging, according to Andrea
Bertuolo, CEO and sales manager for EyePro System.
Specifically, vision cameras scan the top and bottom
of surfaces relying on color variation to spot defects.
"If these contaminants are visible by the vision system
based on different factors like resolution, position, color
difference and other variables, they can be identified and
rejected by the systems, and/or alarms can be generated," he said.
Depending on the vision modules installed and products inspected, EyePro's technology will monitor physical dimensions such as length, width, diameter, roundness, height and slope of a product, such as the exact
shape of a quick-service restaurant's hamburger bun.
They also check color distribution and ensure consistent
coverage of seeds and toppings on baked goods.
Mr. Bertuolo pointed out vision technology also identifies products that are too small, low or dark or those
that indicate under- or overbaking or black/light spots,
blotchiness, topping defects, indentations and broken
products. "The customer can set the system by changing
the limits for each feature, selecting for which features
and using which limits they want to reject," he said.
He added all data - even when the rejection feature is
not activated - is acquired and stored for future analysis to continuously improve production consistency and
enhance yield, which is an especially critical parameter
used on today's high-volume lines.

Looking to upgrade
With regular maintenance and occasional updates, metal detectors, X-ray machines and vision systems typi-

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