How Sensors Can Improve Food and Beverage Packaging

Contamination, rising temperatures, and subtle packaging defects are growing concerns in the food industry. These variables can create vulnerability in the production chain and disrupt supply. Manufacturers can prevent these issues by using non-contact inspection sensors.

Sensors in food packaging ensure consistency throughout the production stages, right from the acquisition of raw ingredients to the packaging of final products. If not properly stored, raw ingredients can cause contamination problems. Likewise, defective food packaging can lead to costly recalls.

Sensors can be likened to vigilant guardians in food processing facilities, ensuring food consistency, quality, and safety. They enable manufacturing processes to meet regulatory standards and ensure every single product that enters the market is of the highest quality.

How Sensors Solve Common Packaging Challenges

Sensors in food packaging are the unsung heroes of this business. They perform everything from exact ingredient measurements to contamination detection and monitoring vital factors like temperature, moisture content, and pressure.

For example, measurement sensors for the food and beverage industry can identify the volume of raw materials so consistency can be achieved from start to finish.

If delivered products don’t meet consumer requirements, they are more likely to return them to the warehouse and demand refunds or show their displeasure in the form of bad press. Negative feedback on social platforms and business directories can lead to a sharp decline in subsequent product demands. Likewise, recalls can be financially draining on the company’s resources.

Here are a few ways different types of measurement sensors are solving common packaging problems in the food industry.

Maintaining Freshness and Quality

After preparing, processing, and preserving food, the next step in the production line is to package the final product. While suitable packaging must be used, it’s also important to ensure such materials are in good condition to preserve freshness. Temperature packaging sensors can be used to determine if packaging materials like bottles and cartons are within optimum temperature levels. Packaging must also be free from moisture and other contaminants that could be damaging. Finding the right systems to maintain packaging conditions is often a concern, especially for small-scale food processing factories.

Laser displacement sensors and laser profilers can also be used to ensure packages are fully sealed.

The point is packaged and sealed foods can be damaged by a lot of biological and chemical processes. Using the right sensor technology (no matter how basic) will help detect potential problems on time. This way, the quality and freshness of products can be ensured.

Ensuring Safety and Compliance

The taste, texture, and appearance of a food item can indicate whether or not it's safe for consumption. pH sensors measure the acidity of ingredients and food products. They also play a key role in flavor control, which is important in determining how safe food products are for consumption. Other sensor technologies can read and measure the hardness or softness of food items to determine degradation.

Investing in these sensor technologies helps ensure consumer safety and regulatory compliance. Regulatory compliance makes food manufacturing and packaging companies stay in business. This is because the health and safety requirements are just a reflection of consumer needs. The supply of safe food products to the market promotes long-term patronage. However, not being in alignment with regulatory requirements can lead to costly fines and serious lawsuits.

Reducing Waste

Using the right packaging sensors helps eliminate industrial waste resulting from ineffective food packaging practices. Less waste leads to better resource utilization. Time that would otherwise be spent clearing away waste from the facility can be better spent on other important business activities.

Moreover, production problems can result in expensive downtime and scrapped products due to safety concerns. Catching these problems before they occur prevents this unnecessary waste of resources.

The application of sensors in food packaging can also help in reducing waste in landfills and in the environment. Food production and packaging industries can contribute to global conservation efforts by generating less waste.

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How Sensors are Transforming the Food and Beverage Industry

In years past, food and beverage companies relied on manual techniques to protect food packaging and contents within. To keep up with today's rapid production environment — and overcome variables like weather conditions — automated packaging systems have become the new standard.

Modern systems contain multiple sensors that work in tandem to improve operational efficiency and generate less waste.

Multiple sensor solutions for the food and beverage industry are available. For example, 2D/3D measurement sensors are non-contact, high-precision devices that can measure food height, width, volume and more. They can also be used for 3D inspections.

With a range of uses, they can measure deviations in product packaging integrity. Especially in fast-paced, manufacturing lines where it’s impossible to visually inspect for defects, the packaging sensors can help businesses improve on their operation.

KEYENCE has different types of measurement sensors that can be useful in the food packaging business to ensure accurate product integrity and compliance with regulatory quality requirements. For more information on any of our sensors, contact us today.