OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGE OF GLASS-IN-GLASS DETECTION WITH 3D X-RAY INSPECTION
LATTERIA VIPITENO relies on BIOMETiC’s unique food inspection system
Identifying an X-ray inspection system that could keep up with the company’s food inspection needs required a thorough and certainly not easy investigation for LATTERIA VIPITENO.
For the dairy cooperative, consumer safety and product quality come first. These aspects are reflected not only in the choice of raw materials, attention to processing methods, and maintaining relationships with suppliers and customers but also in packaging and food inspection methods. And so, with particular attention to the environment, LATTERIA VIPITENO has chosen to package its organic yogurt in glass jars. A challenge in the name of sustainability.
“We had several meetings with German manufacturers of classic X-ray inspection systems with 2D technology, i.e., devices that could only analyze the product from 1 or 2 angles,” explains Luis Wild, Management Assistant of LATTERIA VIPITENO. “However, none of these inspection systems were able to safely and reliably detect the ‘glass within glass’ and thus meet the company’s requirements.”
“The big advantage we immediately realized is that with Mito, BIOMETiC’s unique 3D technology X-ray inspection system, we can analyze and scan the product at 360 degrees, that is, from every possible angle,” continues Mr. Wild. “With BIOMETiC’s Mito, we are sure to fully and effectively analyze both the product itself and the glass jars, thus guaranteeing consumers a 100% safe product.”
Glass containers are, in fact, among the most difficult packages to inspect. The peculiarity and delicacy of the package itself mean that, due to manufacturing defects or bumps between individual jars, the main contaminant found in jars is glass, the same material from which the containers are made. The glass fragments, dangerous foreign bodies, thus have the same density as the packaging, which makes detection difficult – a common problem known not only to manufacturers in the dairy sector but also, e.g., to those in the cannery industry.
The cause of detection problems is that the fragments have the same density as the package itself. And glass containers used in the food industry usually have a thicker base, sidewalls, and necks that can cause obscuration of the field of view. Thus, hazardous contaminants and glass fragments can easily “hide” from the X-ray view of classical 2D food inspection systems.
THE ONLY 3D X-RAY FOOD INSPECTION SYSTEM FOR THE FOOD INDUSTRY
How Mito guarantees safe and high-quality food products
Ensuring the supply of safe food that meets consumers’ quality expectations is just one of the challenging tasks facing companies in today’s food industry. A single product recall caused by the presence of foreign objects in food is, in fact, enough to cause significant damage to consumer health, brand loyalty, and corporate reputation. So, increasingly, food manufacturers are installing X-ray inspection systems to protect consumer safety, meet food safety standards and reduce the risk of product recalls.
Compared to 2D technology X-ray inspection systems, Mito combines X-ray technology with computed tomography (CT) and artificial intelligence (AI). The rotating X-ray source – BIOMETiC’s computed tomography technology – captures in detail the shape and characteristics of scanned food products to recreate a 3D reconstruction of the object in-line at production speeds. BIOMETiC’s tomography thus takes advantage of all three dimensions (length, width, and depth) to perform measurements and analysis of the external and internal characteristics of the food.
Ensuring the highest levels of food safety and product quality, BIOMETiC’s 3D X-ray inspection system protects consumers from non-compliant products, minimizes the risk of product recalls, and helps manufacturers safeguard brand reputation. This, in addition to checking for the presence and secure placement of caps that seal the jars and the correct fill level.
MITO’S FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY CONTROLS ARE FULLY TAILORED TO YOUR INSPECTION NEEDS
Foreign body detection, product safety, and real-time quality assurance
Mito offers solutions to the problems of different sectors of the food industry, from canning to desserts, and can be adapted to the inspection needs of the company.
In parallel with the detection of foreign bodies of different nature, the 3D X-ray inspection system of BIOMETiC performs, in fact, simultaneously several quality controls. If you want to verify specific quality characteristics of food products in addition to the presence of contaminants, there is no need to purchase a new solution. It is enough to adapt the algorithms of Mito to the aspects that you want to verify.
The constant commitment of BIOMETiC is in the research of the optimal balance between the world of food and the world of technological innovation. Mito grows in this way to meet the inspection needs of your company so that you can optimize the efficiency of your production, ensure customer satisfaction, and avoid product waste.
