Page 25 - Food & Drink Business August 2018

THE Interceptor Metal Detector from Fortress Technology provides a cost-effective alternative to x-ray technology, according to AccuPak, an authorised systems integrator for Fortress Technology in Australia.
The Fortress Interceptor processes the transmission and reception of multiple frequencies continuously over a broad spectrum, which provides an improvement in detection capabilities of up to 100 per cent with stainless steel, especially when inspecting traditionally difficult ‘wet’ products.
“This will be of particular interest to food producers using metalised film in their process or with products that create a challenging product effect,”
AccuPak general manager Auke de Ruyter de Wildt says.
In many applications, the Interceptor is able to meet or exceed the metal detection results achieved with x-ray systems, and its unique noise immunity structure means effects from external electrical noise have been dramatically reduced, lowering the occurrence of false rejects.
“Lowering the incidence of false rejects and keeping avoidable factory food waste to a minimum is critical, while maintaining high throughputs and product integrity and food safety levels,” De Ruyter de Wildt says.
“The incidence of metal detectors providing false
rejections is more commonplace on
lines where wet products, such as meat, poultry, fish, dairy and bakery products are inspected.”
Many food metal detectors have, until recently, found it difficult to reliably distinguish between the signal generated by a metal contaminant and the signal caused by product effect, he said.
“Stainless steel has been especially difficult to detect in wet products due to the fact that the signal can be effectively disguised by the product effect.”
Trials with stainless steel in wet products, however, have shown that Interceptor can pinpoint contaminants half the
size of those detectable by former generations of equipment, which significantly reduces incidents of false rejects.
“Recent developments in metal detection reduce the amount of food waste manufacturers generate, and shows that food safety on the one hand, and concerns about cost, speed and wastage, naturally overlap,” De Ruyter de Wildt said.
“What’s more, it proves that on fast moving production lines, haste doesn’t always equate to morewaste.” ✷
MEAT, FISH & POULTRY
Safety on the line
AccuPak outlines some of the advantages of simultaneous multi- frequency technology for wet products like meat.
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | August 2018 | Food&Drink business | 25