IAOM Presentation

Chris Heming, MD Packaging Inc.

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Contamination Threats to Food Supply Chain

Food supply chain from source to consumer

Major sources
of contamination
Chemical Biological Physical

Contamination threats exist in each step of the food chain

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What Drives Food Safety Today?

• Corporate brand protection

• Foreign objects are impossible to eliminate
• Rework, scrap or recalls can be very costly
• Use of a PI may be a requirement to export
• Problems can cost millions of $

• Retailer policies and mandates

• Many retailers have enhanced policies
• Most will perform audits
• X-ray may even be a condition to do business

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Food Safety (continued)

• Compliance with industry standards

• FDA HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points)
• GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative)
• ISO (International Standards Organization)
• BRC (British Retail Consortium)
• Many industry specific standards for meat, bakery, dairy, seafood and other
products

• US Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)

• First major update to US law in 30 years
• Increased requirements in many areas including planning,
reporting, traceability, importation, supplier verification
• New regulations are being written and applied now

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Why Food Safety is More Important Today Than Ever

• Incidents and recalls are very public

• Mass, easy communication via the internet
• Consumers are more educated and concerned

• Detection systems more capable and less costly

• Metal detection sensitivity constantly improving
• X-ray systems can find more types of objects
• Systems are very easy to use and own

• Heading toward zero tolerance

• 3-5 mm was OK, now 0.8mm can be detected
• Recognition that all hazards must be detected, they can never
be eliminated completely

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Metal Detection Theory
of Operation

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The Basic Principle of Metal Detection

• A transmitter sends out a signal

• Two receivers at equal distances
from the transmitter receive the signals
• The signals from the receivers are subtracted and
the result is zero - a balanced condition

Receiver A Transmitter Receiver B

x x

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What Happens When Metal is Present

• Metal objects between the coils “unbalance” the system

and thus metal may be detected
• A digital signal processor analyzes the signals to find the
metal and ignore the product

Receiver A Transmitter Receiver B

x x- y

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Metal Can Have Two Effects

Magnetic Effect

Conductive Effect

In the APEX Magnetic = X and Conductive = R

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Metal Types (red indicates metal in test cards)

• Ferrous – Iron and mild steel

Ferrous metals contain both magnetic and conductive properties
Easiest to detect

• Magnetic stainless steel – 400 series

Contains both magnetic and conductive properties
Easier to detect

• Non-ferrous – Aluminum, copper, tin, lead, brass and silver

Non-ferrous metals are conductive, but not magnetic
Slightly more difficult to detect

• Non-magnetic stainless steel – 304 and 316 series

Poor conductive and no magnetic properties
Most difficult to detect
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Wire Detection Fundamentals

Ferrous
Largest signal due to amplification of the magnetic signal

Ferrous

Non-Ferrous
Largest signal due to size of eddy current created

Non-Ferrous

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Metal Detector Frequency Selection By Product

• 50 Khz – Large, wet (conductive) products such as

gallons of salad dressing or blocks of fresh meat.

• 100 & 150 Khz – Small to medium size, conductive products

like 5 lb. tubs of tuna or packs of fresh poultry.

• 200 Khz – Small to medium size, somewhat conductive

products such as bags of salad mix or loaves of bread.

• 300 Khz – Any very dry or hard frozen product such as

bags of sugar or ground beef below 20° F.

• 900 Khz – Pharmaceutical applications such as pills or

capsules using small metal detector aperture sizes.

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What is Phase Angle?

• All real contaminants have a combination of both magnetic and conductive

effects
• The ratio of the two effects can be measured by the phase angle of the out
of balance voltage
• Some products have phase angles. The product must be ignored, the
metal must be detected.

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Phase Range and Metal Phases

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Phasing Out a Product

Wet product signal

Phase envelope (filter)

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How Traditional Phasing Works in Detail

• The PEAK Product X and R signals are

learned (shown in red) R
• The ratio of these peaks is used to
generate a phase out angle or “ignore” 7mm

region (shown in yellow)

• The magnitude of the product peaks is
5mm
used to set detect level (shown in green) Various Stainless

• As the metal type or size changes it may 4mm

Steel Signals

result in a condition where the metal is 3mm

“phased out” and missed Product
Effect Signal
• Phase tracking and operating frequency
2mm
and Phase
changes move this problem around but Angle

do not eliminate it
Phase Out
Region

Detect Threshold

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How Intellitrack XR (IXR) is Different

X Detect
 The product X and R signals are stored Threshold
Intellitrack XR
during auto learn. Information from both R
channels is used and NOT combined
(shown in light green) 7mm

 During production the learned signals are

subtracted from the actual signals
 The learned signals are also tracked and 5mm
Various Stainless
updated continuously in production 4mm
Steel Signals

 The resulting X and R product signals are 3mm

very small (shown in red)
Learned
 Two thresholds are set – one for X and one 2mm
Product
Effect Signals
for R. Detection can be on either or both
channels. (shown in dark green) 1mm

 Metal can never be phased out! R Detect

Threshold
Resulting Product
Signal After
Subtraction
IXR learns and cancels both product
signals enhancing detection X

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Sentinel Multiscan Metal Detection

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Multiple Frequencies

All metals whether iron, stainless steel, brass or aluminum react differently to an
electromagnetic field. Their reaction changes based on shape, size, orientation and position.
The small signal from the metal contaminant can hide inside of a much larger signal from
a wet, salty or high mineral content product. Add to this unwanted electrical interference and
vibration effects and you have the potential for metal foreign objects to go undetected.

The Sentinel detector offers an entirely new approach to this challenging

problem. You no longer must pick the “best” frequency for an application or
try running some combination of fixed dual frequencies. Instead, you select 1,
2, 3, 4, or 5 frequencies, use a step-by step wizard to set up your product and
test any/all the types of contaminants

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Problems for metal detection

• Vibration – SOLVED – solid core

• Looping
• Radios - SOLVED
• VFDs - SOLVED
• Static (product and external)
• Grounding
• Power
• Sensitivity over-reach
• Aperture Size
• Product Effect / Orientation Effect
• SOLVED

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 1 in 1,000,000 one metal detector

1/1,000,0005 = 1 -30th decimals = very long

time

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 Benefits
- better detection
- less false rejects
- incredibly easier
troubleshooting

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 Chris Heming
MD Packaging Inc.
[email protected]
403-671-9927
Calgary AB and Steinbach MB

The world leader in serving science