In 2024, one of the nation’s largest chicken processing companies was forced to recall over 100,000 pounds of frozen nuggets and tenders over possible contamination from metal wires. If you’re not using a metal detector (or, ideally, more than one) on your production line, your business faces the risk of expensive recalls and unhappy consumers.
Where can metal detectors be used in food production? Below, learn about the proper placement for metal detectors in your production line, plus tips for integrating your metal detectors with other inspection systems.
Why Are Metal Detectors Used in Food Production?
Why exactly are metal detectors so important in food production? The number-one reason is consumer safety. No matter how careful you are or how well you train employees, there’s always a risk of metal contaminants making their way into your food products.
Screws, bolts, washers, and metal shavings are among the most common metal contaminants that wind up in food. Swallowing metal parts and pieces can lead to digestive distress, choking, and internal injuries.
When consumers suffer injuries from contaminated food, your company faces a serious risk of a lawsuit. Class-action lawsuits, in particular, can be ruinous for your business. You might have to pay out millions to impacted consumers regardless of whether or not your product caused them injuries.
You may also have to recall contaminated products to get them off store shelves. That’s what happened to a major pet food producer in May of 2024. The producer issued a recall for 315 bags of dog food due to the possibility of contamination from metal shavings. In November of that same year, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced a recall of several brands of bread due to metal contamination.
Recalls affect your bottom line and your reputation. Once consumers believe your products aren’t safe, it isn’t easy to convince them otherwise.
Food metal detectors are also essential for complying with international food safety regulations and guidelines, such as the FDA’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. This system involves conducting a hazard analysis, determining critical control points, establishing critical limits, monitoring procedures, and corrective actions.
Where To Place Metal Detectors in the Food Production Line
Where can metal detectors be used in food production? It’s not enough to just place a single metal detector somewhere in your line and call it a day. Rather, it’s best to set up metal detectors at critical control points (CCPs) throughout the line as follows:
At the Start of the Line
If there were metal pieces in your products, wouldn’t you like to know before they make it all the way down the production line? That’s why installing a metal detector at the beginning of your line is smart.
Doing so reduces the risk of contaminants making it through your line and lowers the odds of damaging equipment with metal debris. By catching problems early, you’ll save time and potentially spend less on costly equipment repairs.
At the End of the Line
Just because your products are problem-free at the start of production doesn’t mean they’ll make it through the line unscathed. For example, a screw might fall out of the equipment into a box of cereal, or metal shavings could end up mixed into a container of baby formula.
Placing a metal detector at the end of the production line helps mitigate problems like these. By doing so, you’ll minimize the risk to consumers and avoid violating food safety regulations.
At Critical Control Points (CCPs)
According to HACCP guidelines, critical control points are points at which the risk of contamination is the highest. Placing metal detectors at each CCP helps you identify contaminants at every stage of the production process. Examples of CCPs include:
- Formulating a product
- Testing a food for impurities
- Heating or cooling a product
- Grinding or blending (for example, grinding beef to make hamburger patties)
It’s important to note that CCPs are not the same thing as regular control points or CPs. CCPs are moments in production when a potential hazard cannot be eliminated or reduced in an upcoming process. Think of a CCP as your last line of defense for reducing or eliminating metal contaminants during production.
Integrating Metal Detectors With Other Inspection Systems
Food metal detectors do a good job of finding ferrous and non-ferrous metals, but they can’t pick up on everything. For example, many metal detectors have a hard time detecting stainless steel. This is especially true in products with a high salt or moisture content. Such products can trigger false positives, increasing wastage figures.
Consumables in metallic packing, such as soda in cans, present a special challenge. Additionally, food metal detectors have a hard time “seeing” through certain types of packaging.
The best solution is to pair your metal detectors with an x-ray or vision inspection system. X-ray systems can detect contaminants inside any type of packaging, making them vital for food in metal packages. They can also detect packaging anomalies and contaminants that metal detectors cannot, such as bone, glass, stones, and plastic.
If your production line processes loose foods like beans, rice, or sugar, you may also wish to invest in a checkweigher system. A checkweigher ensures that your equipment is adding the right amount of product to every package.
Some production lines combine food metal detectors with magnets. If the system locates metal contaminants in a product, the magnets will extract the debris before the product moves down the production line.
Connect your detection equipment with an automated acceptance and rejection system to save time. If the system detects an anomaly, it will either automatically reject the product or route it to a quality control worker for review.
Whatever setup you choose, it’s important to pair it with a reliable alert system that will notify you if the equipment detects an anomaly. Many metal detectors send an audible alert to warn production line workers that something is amiss. Some also send alerts to your phone or email, which can help you identify problems when you’re away from the production line.
Benefits of Strategic Placement of Metal Detectors
Where can metal detectors be used in food production? Installing metal detectors throughout your production line is an added expense, but one that’s well worth it. By doing so, your business will enjoy benefits like these:
- You’ll protect consumers from metal contaminants that could cause serious injury. The last thing your business needs is to have to pay an injured consumer for their hospital bills.
- By keeping metal debris out of your food products, you’ll earn a reputation as a producer who cares about consumer safety. On the other hand, letting metal debris slip into your products will give you a bad reputation that’s hard, sometimes impossible, to fix.
- You’ll avoid the devastating financial impact of product recalls. Recalling a product can cost thousands or even millions of dollars, and some companies never recover from such a blow. It’s much better to be safe than sorry.
- Have you ever sent a product through the line only to find contaminants at the tail end of the process? Not only have you wasted product, but you have also wasted time processing and packaging the item. By installing a food metal detector at the start of your line, you’ll catch contaminants before products go any further, nipping this issue in the bud.
- A food metal detector can help your business avoid violating food safety regulations. Violating regulations could lead to expensive fines and a shutdown of your production line while you correct the problem.
To take advantage of these benefits, your business must implement food metal detectors correctly. Here’s how:
- Choose the right style of metal detector for your products. Gravity-feed or vertical-fall detectors are best for free-flowing food like salt and sugar, while conveyor systems are suitable for meats, produce, and bread. Pumped systems are best for liquids such as milk, juice, and soup.
- Pick a detector that can find the type of metal you’re most concerned about. Most detectors do a fine job of picking up both ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Stainless steel is difficult to detect, so you’ll need a special system to find it.
- Determine whether you need to pair your metal detector with another system, such as x-ray equipment. For example, you’d benefit from an x-ray system if you process meat, which is likely to contain bones.
- Calibrate all metal detectors to ensure accuracy and avoid false positives. The manufacturer should provide instructions on how to calibrate your machine.
- Train production line workers on the metal detector’s operation. Some metal detector manufacturers offer in-house training programs.
Ensuring Food Safety Through Smart Detector Placement
Where can metal detectors be used in food production? It’s not enough for your business to simply own metal detectors. For the best results, you’ll need to place them strategically throughout your production line.
If you’re in the market for a metal detector, browse our inventory or call TDI Packsys at (877) 834-6750.
