Food Safety with Advanced Packaging Inspection Technologies

Packaging and seal integrity inspection are important parts of food and beverage production. Food packaging inspection helps prevent contaminants from damaging the final product. It also helps manufacturing and production lines prevent packaging errors (like contents escaping packaging seals).

KEYENCE offers a range of inspection and measurement sensors for the food and beverage industry. These solutions come equipped with technologies built to help lines meet consumer taste requirements and regulation quality standards.

Importance of Food Packaging Inspection

Packaging inspection systems help food and beverage manufacturers reduce waste, enhance productivity and comply with regulations.

Broken or punctured packages can result in contaminated products, which may lead to costly returns, brand damage and even consumer harm. Food packaging inspection systems can identify issues during production and alert line managers when something goes wrong.

Common faults include incorrect label positions, missing items and bad seals. Packaging inspection solutions perform fast, in-line checks to meet the demands of industrial lines and eliminate the need for manual inspection.

Some inspection systems double as measurement sensors. They perform multiple jobs, like ensuring the amount of ingredients is correct or maintaining the right temperature during production.

Regulations Involved in Food Packaging Inspection

Of course, consumers are not the only ones concerned about the taste, texture, weight, and—most importantly—quality of products. Government and regulatory agencies are particularly concerned about the safety and quality of food products being made available to the public.

In the U.S., food and beverage manufacturers need to abide by FDA regulations to preserve consumer safety. Using the right solutions for food packaging inspection and also overall manufacturing helps companies stay compliant with regulation requirements and avoid fines associated with non-compliance.

Key Features of Packaging Inspection Systems

The use of highly effective packaging systems can help food companies maintain a reputation for reliability, quality, and safety. So what should you look for when inspecting food packaging systems? Here are some key features to check for in an inspection system.

3D Inspection

An effective packaging system should be able to inspect parts and surfaces in 3D. This helps ensure films are undamaged, seals are properly made and that there's no physical damage to the package.

Build Quality

Before committing to inspection equipment, the dryness, wetness, and temperature variance of inspection areas must be considered. Product developers should be able to prove whether electrical components are protected from external conditions and answer other build quality-related questions.

Another aspect of the durability check is to ask about the machine failure rate. Usually, developers should provide a data sheet containing accurate information about these and other related details. Being armed with the necessary information goes a long way in choosing the right food inspection equipment.

Cost

The cost of purchase and installation seems like a basic thing anyone should know, but the company decision-making team may overlook the costs of replacement parts. Even if the upfront costs aren't a barrier, operational expenses for any packaging or seal inspection machine must be considered.

System Efficiency

An inspection system suitable for high-moving production lines must offer speed, accuracy, compatibility, and ease of use. A system is desirable if it can easily integrate with existing production lines and equipment without complicated coding or programming procedures, as well as offer accurate inspection at high speeds.

Data Analysis

The application of an automated seal inspection machine, for example, may be primarily about checking for seal integrity and packaging checks, but it also extends to the provision of data that can be analyzed to improve quality control and processes. Check if the system has a data analysis function or can be connected to another device that collects and analyzes inspection-related data.

Benefits of Using Advanced Packaging Inspection Technologies

Deploying the appropriate product seal and packaging inspection system offers both simple and major benefits.

Enhanced Food Safety

Automated inspection systems offer effective detection of contaminants and inconsistencies that may render food products unsafe for consumption. These systems also help eliminate factors, such as temperature and humidity, that could reduce the shelf life of food products. They typically do this through inspection for container defects, excessive moisture levels, or water ingress.

Efficient Inspection Results

With advanced package and inspection systems, manufacturers are able to overcome inspection issues that are notoriously challenging for traditional inspection solutions.

Satisfied Quality Requirements

Advanced systems that provide, for instance, 3D inspection and measurement capabilities can help capture three-dimensional imaging that exposes even the tiniest product defect. The result can help intervention and future production efforts.

Reduced Costs

The entry costs of conventional systems can be relatively low compared to advanced packaging inspection technologies. However, costs associated with constant downtimes and inefficiencies add up over time. Investing in modern and capable systems may be costly on the front end, but the performance and uptime benefits offered will make up for the costs with time.

Measurement Sensors for Advanced Food Packaging Inspections and Seal Inspections

KEYENCE offers a line of reliable sensor and food packaging inspection technologies for companies in the food industry. Our laser displacement sensors, for example, are designed on the principle of laser triangulation and confocal technology. They find applications in the inspection of various packaging materials with different surface textures and light reflectivity.

The KEYENCE’s LJ-S8000 Series is a laser profiler using laser displacement sensing technology for dimensional, appearance, shape, and other related inspections. For deserving applications, we have 3D inspection solutions designed for speedy and accurate inspection of packages and seal integrity.

Want to learn more about our high-precision measurement solutions? Contact us today.