Even the most well-run plants and facilities will encounter a contamination issue at some point. It is an unfortunate, yet inevitable, part of the food industry. How do foreign material incidents happen? Read on to learn more about how these issues start and how they can be prevented.
How Do Foreign Material Incidents Happen?
Most often foreign material issues stem from internal equipment failures, such as:
- Machine parts rubbing, breaking, or causing other contamination issues
- Internal inspection equipment not working properly
Other times it can be attributed to operator/human error during production, such as:
- Suppliers and vendors can introduce contaminants into your process without you knowing.
- Even intentional sabotage from a disgruntled employee is possible
When these types of issues occur, it is key to figure out the source and therefore limit its scope. That’s where FlexXray comes in.
Our inspection process is capable of identifying many types of foreign materials located in the product. Once found, we can provide information which can give you a better idea of when and where the contaminant was introduced to the product.
How X-ray Inspection Prevents Costly Foreign Material Incidents
Using proprietary X-ray equipment, we can physically inspect, remove, and catalog the foreign material for you. This is an additional service which the majority of our customers ask us to perform.
Recovering the actual contaminants saves them the time and hassle of attempting to locate them, some less than 1 mm in size, within the product at their facility. Instead customers have that information immediately available for evaluation by their quality or management teams. This provides valuable insight into the origin and extend of the foreign material issue.
There are countless ways foreign material incidents happen. It is important how you react to ensure the safety of your product. A food recall can severely damage a brand and company if the situation is not handled properly.
At FlexXray, we pride ourselves on being a trusted partner who can discretely and efficiently salvage your potentially contaminated product. Your product is your reputation, something we take very seriously here.
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