Meat+Poultry - October 2019 - 71

SDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has developed a guideline
to help meat and poultry establishments develop a written program
to respond to complaints about foreign matter consumers find in
meat and poultry products they purchase. The guideline outlines best
practices companies can use to respond to these complaints.
But instead of knowing how to respond to complaints, isn't it better
for processors to take steps during processing to detect foreign material
before it ever gets to consumers?
There are basically two types of systems that can be used in
detection technology, particularly if the hunt is on for foreign material
contamination in meat and poultry products, says Glenn Holliday, product
manager, inspection, for Marel North America, based in Lenexa, Kansas.
Marel is headquartered in Iceland.
One of them is X-ray technology, which is very good at finding metal,
porcelain, glass and bone in meat and poultry products, he says. Metal
detectors are another highly used detection technology, though X-ray
technology is becoming more prevalent.
"We at Marel are always looking to improve. There is new technology
that we're looking into for future use with X-ray technology or by itself."
Holliday points to problems in poultry and meat slaughtering and
processing that lend themselves to soft foreign material contamination.
"In processing, the processors are often buying combos of meat
surrounded by plastic liners," he says. "People are using box cutters - the
cardboard and the plastic can get ripped off and end up in the meat."
He also notes limitations in what inspection technology can do. "We
never say X-rays are 100 percent effective. We make no claims about
finding plastic or cardboard." So plastic is still found largely through
visual inspection. "But what X-rays can do is find bone."
Marel came out with its first X-ray machines for poultry in 2006,
which are used largely to find bone contamination. "We've been the
poultry standard for fresh deboning detection ever since," he says, with
600 machines specializing in bone detection in the poultry industry in
North America.
While some people think automation can be blamed for more foreign
material contamination in the industry, Holliday disagrees. "There have
been automated lines for the last 20 years. When you had lines of people
wearing chain link gowns and gloves, I think more came from them than
automated machines."

EARLY DETECTION
Jeff Ray, Marel's marketing manager in North America, points out
that a top priority for inspection and detection technology is to find
contaminants as early in the meat or poultry process as possible.
The company also offers product control software, enabling
processors to tell what was tested for foreign material contaminants after
the products are packed off into combos or boxes. This can limit recalls
because processors know what was discovered. It creates an "electronic
trail," indicating where it came in, and where it is now.
Advanced Detection Systems, based in Milwaukee, manufactures
metal detection equipment for the food industry, including for meat and
poultry, explains Dave Smith, sales manager for the company.
"Our products - the metal detectors - are sensitive to ferrous, nonferrous and stainless-steel metals," he says. Ferrous metals are magnetic

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Meat+Poultry - October 2019

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