sensors & systems - Industrial Technology Magazine

DESIGN REPORT
Food Hygiene & Safety
Robust inspection system
keeps sausages safe
A metal detection system
installed on a pre-packed
meat and sausage production
line is ensuring absolutely
safe food without wasting
unacceptable quantities
Although safety standards are essential in the
food industry, they are just a starting point and
most food manufacturers go well beyond the
legal requirements to protect their good name.
No matter how often a product is praised for taste and
quality, just one report of contamination can easily
destroy not just the reputation of a particular product
but also damage the brand.
Pre-packed meat and sausage company,
Aldenhoven, wanted the highest possible quality
standards, exceeding IFS requirements. But finding
suitable metal detection and separation equipment that
was both easy to use and reliable proved to be far from
easy. A major problem was the inspection of sausage
meat filling for very small particles of metal from the
production process without wasting an unacceptable
quantity of the product. The strong and variable product
effect combined with high vibration levels and wet
operating conditions demanded a very high
specification inspection system. The solution came in
the form of a Liquiscan metal detection system with the
Genius control unit from S+S Inspection.
Designed specifically for use with pumped liquid and
paste products, the S+S Liquiscan can be installed with
all types of conventional filling machines without any
problems. The Genius control unit is designed for
quality control systems used in automatic processes and
the ‘Auto-Learn’ capability automatically adjusts for
product effect changes. The system logbook can record
one thousand events and produce date and time
stamped documentation to HACCP and ISO 9000
standards.
Delivering high standards
As an additional safeguard, Aldenhoven also installed
an S+S Unicon-D end-of-line metal detection system to
identify magnetic and non-magnetic contamination in
packed products, both sausages and meats immediately
before despatch. Aldenhoven’s technical manager says:
“To meet the very high standards we set, it has been
necessary to replace some of our existing inspection
equipment with S+S systems. Now, we can be
confident that the quality demanded by our
customers will be reliably maintained.”
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