Case study: X-ray inspection system helps to accomplish SQF certification
Food safety system as a competitive advantage
A sausage processing plant company based in Canada is currently catering to the local market. It‘s making impressive inroads in establishing a wider following by going well and beyond the common perception of what a sausage is for average Canadian consumer.
This family business began making good-quality sausages about 20 years ago in a local area butcher shop. After determining that the small butcher shop was not well-suited to producing the volume of sausage products demanded by its customers, the president and co-owner sold the shop and acquired a nearby bakery. Already in compliance with the provincial food safety standards, the facility was modified and equipped with some newly-purchased sausage-making equipment to fulfill his vision of making gourmet-quality sausage products.
Processing roughly 350,000 kilograms of sausages, still a small company, compared to some of the big national processors who produce some 200,000 kilograms of sausages per week.
SQF certification requires technologies to remove or detect foreign objects
The high-aiming company is keen on becoming a true market leader, with national distribution to match, in a very competitive meat industry segment with high demands regarding ingredients and product purity.
In order to be competitive and to be able to win larger customers, a food safety certification is inevitable. Therefore, the company strived to accomplish the SQF (Safe Quality Food Institute) certification initiative. And an important requirement of SQF are “technologies to remove or detect foreign matter“.
X-ray inspection system for foreign body detection
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They purchased a RAYCON X-ray inspection system manufactured from Sesotec. Featuring a large 300x150 mm inspection window, the highspeed RAYCON can inspect packaged goods at rates of up to 300 pieces per minute, depending on the object´s length, detecting and rejecting all magnetic and nonmagnetic materials such as glass, ceramic, stone, bone, PVC etc., even when contained within metallic or metal-coated foil.
Along with performing its primary task of detecting foreign particles in the product flow, the RAYCON can also provide visual detection of misshaped products, as well as check for incorrect product weight. The RAYCON can inspect different size and shape products on the same production line by utilizing its unique multilane and multiproduct software.
The RAYCON X-ray system can learn specific packaged product shapes, thereby allowing for different products to be handled on the same production line without triggering false positives and optimizing detection performance. The real time operating system with touchscreen provides the operator with a clear view of each packaged sausage being inspected.
Effective food safety system and successful SQF certification
After the installation of the X-ray inspection system the company accomplished the SQF certification initiative. The president has already realized how beneficial the RAYCON system has been to the company: "The RAYCON model X-ray product inspection system from Sesotec is an essential part of our food safety system and I continue to be impressed by the level of service provided us by Sesotec.“
