Product inspection enhanced to meet GFSI regulations

METTLER TOLEDO has added software enhancements to its checkweighing, metal detection and x-ray food inspection systems, making it easier to comply with Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) industry regulations and country standards.

Newer product inspection platforms also incorporate a number of additional features which can have a significant impact on businesses by improving brand protection and compliance, reducing costs, maximizing performance and enhancing original equipment effectiveness.

1.    Improved Brand Protection and Compliance

Modern industrial food metal detectors employ innovative technologies and sophisticated analytical tools capable of increasing detection sensitivity by up to 50 percent. Such detectors are capable of identifying metal fragments half the size of the smallest previously detectable by older metal detectors.

The Safeline’s new range of Profile Advantage metal detectors can help to improve brand protection and regulatory compliance by overcoming the traditional limitations on sensitivity and reducing incidents of false triggering that machines purchased before 2005 experienced.

Improved sensitivity makes many of the operational compromises inherent in an older machine’s technology obsolete, allowing Quality and Production Managers to define new factory standards for product safety without compromising production efficiency.

2.    Reducing Costs to Increase Profits

Food producers face increasing pressure to operate flexibly and manufacture a wide range of products from existing production lines that are capable of quickly switching from one product type to another. However, frequent product changes increase downtime and provide more opportunities for costly operational mistakes.

The Garvens C3000 checkweighers offer higher weighing accuracy which supports tighter, more flexible modern production demands. Such checkweighers are also able to operate more quickly, whereas older machines may have inadvertently become “bottlenecks” in an environment of newer, faster production. The knock-on effect is higher throughput capability, better quality products, less waste and ultimately higher profits.

3. Maximize Performance

Maximizing the performance of any product inspection equipment is essential. The latest Safeline X33, X36 and X37 Series of x-ray systems are the most advanced inspection solutions on the market, featuring detector technology which can be up to five times more sensitive to x-rays than traditional systems, ensuring unparalleled precision in the contaminant inspection of food products. These new machines are also the most energy-efficient x-ray systems on the market, with the ability to deliver consistent and reliable inspection results in real-time, match changing production needs, reduce machine footprints and significantly reduce operational costs.

In some cases, the original rationale behind equipment purchases in the past is no longer valid, as the enhancements in user experience, improved set-up and servicing, and greater flexibility have pushed the total cost of ownership of such solutions downwards. What's more, with the latest x-ray systems built following European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG) principles and only consuming 20 percent of the power they did over a decade ago, it's important to health check older equipment and compare it to the latest product inspection solutions on the market.

4.    Enhancing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

Accurate production data is at the heart of any OEE improvement plan. To be reliable, production performance data must be collected digitally, automatically and in a consistent format.

The latest generation of in-line product inspection equipment solutions from the company automatically output such performance data for OEE analysis. Compared to their predecessors, for example, sophisticated on-board analytical tools and ProdX propriety management software solutions give production line managers real-time data on production line OEE at the point of inspection by the checkweigher, metal detector or x-ray solution. At any moment in time, managers can see how their line's performing. They have the data at their fingertips that invites them to delve deeper, to see where they can make changes to raise their OEE closer to the world-class target of 85 percent.