As demand for ready meals grows, so do expectations about the safety and quality of those meals. With a variety of meal components and ingredients, manufacturers in this sector have a number of control points to manage throughout their process. From incoming ingredients to final and often multi-compartment packages, manufacturers must also ensure that their operation is compliant with a number of regulatory standards that affect their business.

X-ray technology and software can be deployed at several points in the manufacturing process to prevent product contamination and ensure quality while enabling manufacturers to adhere to global, national, and local standards and pass any required or voluntary audits. “Especially with increased globalization, manufacturers must remain cognizant of and adhere to more standards than ever,” says Travis Vaughn, lead trainer and radiation safety officer for Eagle Product Inspection, an advanced inspection solution provider across a range of processes, products, and packages. “The good news is that X-ray systems are preventive and provide documentation, verification, and traceability, which are fundamental to many of these standards.”

One example of an inspection system that provides safety and quality checks for compliance with food safety practice and protocols is the Eagle Pack 320 PRO. Designed to inspect products on high-speed flow-wrap lines and small to mid-sized packages, the Pack 320 PRO finds and rejects a range of contaminants in ready meals, including glass shards, metal fragments, mineral stone, some plastic and rubber compounds, and calcified bones. The machine also conducts inline product quality checks pivotal to the production of ready meals, such as component count, zonal area weight and total mass measurement. The system is powered by Eagle's proprietary SimulTask™ PRO software that helps ensure compliance with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points principles and other global safety regulations through on-screen diagnostics, advanced image analysis, and traceability.

As they consider X-ray systems most suited for their line and operation, manufacturers can learn more about the latest food safety and quality standards by downloading Eagle’s new resource below.

Eagle Product Inspection | Food Safety and Quality Regulations: A Guide to Global Standards