Inspection Services for Foreign Material Contamination
FlexXray provides third-party inspection services for food manufacturers dealing with foreign material contamination.
Whether you’re working through an active foreign material event, investigating product on hold, or building a more proactive quality program, the goal is the same: get clear data that allows you to make a confident food safety disposition.
FlexXray’s foreign material inspection services apply the right tool based on your specific product and foreign material combination.
FlexXray’s Inspection Toolkit
We use a combination of 2D X-ray inspection, 3D CT (computed tomography), and contaminant retrieval to get the right data on your foreign material contamination event.
Some projects are best handled with X-ray. Others call for CT scanning. The approach is determined up front based on what will deliver a reliable result.
During any project where foreign material is confirmed and isolated, we offer contaminant retrieval upon request. This dissection process can help you recover foreign material samples so they can be measured, analyzed, and compared to potential sources.
Explore FlexXray’s Inspection Capabilities
2D X-Ray Inspection
High-volume 2D inspection using our proprietary X-ray equipment to identify and isolate foreign material in food products.
3D CT Scanning
Uses three-dimensional imaging to evaluate complex or specific contamination questions.
Contaminant Retrieval
Product dissection to recover foreign material samples to support root cause analysis and corrective action.
When to Use Third-Party Inspection
Third-party foreign material inspection is typically used when your internal speed, inspection accuracy, cost, or capacity become limiting factors internally. Common situations include:
Active Contamination Events
When foreign material is suspected or confirmed and product needs to be inspected quickly.
Product On Hold
When an internal re-inspection hasn’t provided enough confidence to safely release the product.
Suspected Foreign Material Due to Customer Complaints
When product already in commerce has potential foreign material contamination.
Proactive Quality Programs
When ingredient, equipment, or other proactive surveillance is needed beyond in-line systems or supplier controls.
“The process as it’s done today by FlexXray is much slower and more methodical than our process. It can detect much smaller materials than we could in our inline high-speed processes. And so the level of confidence you have when FlexXray has looked at product(s) that you’ve found all the foreign material is really high.”
-Senior Vice President of Technical Services at Simmons Foods
What are my options when I have a foreign material event?
In-house Reinspection
and Rework
- Not the core competency of food manufacturers
- Equipped to produce as much food as possible – as opposed to slowly re-inspecting
- Cost of labor, downtime, and overtime
- In-line technology doesn’t find FM you’re not looking for
Send Product
To The Landfill
- Loss of revenue
- Loss of inventory stock
- Damages retailer relationships, slotting fees, OOS Fees
- Time and costs associated with producing replacement product, essentially double
- Contributes to food waste
Third-party Inspection
- More precise technology and slower inspection speeds
- Removes need for internal resourcing (lines, labor, equipment)
- Trained specialist inspectors
- Quicker turnaround
FlexXray’s third-party inspection is within one day’s truck drive of most U.S. manufacturers.
Las Vegas, NV
6355 East Tropical Parkway, Suite 110
North Las Vegas, NV 89115
Allentown, PA – Opening Soon
6520 Stonegate Drive, Suite 160
Allentown, PA 18106
