15 replies to this topic

[Mohamed Ibrahim]

Hi All,

Need to discuss with QA person from frozen potato manufacturers, about mitigation of physical hazards especially stones , wood , rocks ,etc

 

Thx,

Omar

[Charles.C]

Hi All,

Need to discuss with QA person from frozen potato manufacturers, about mitigation of physical hazards especially stones , wood , rocks ,etc

 

Thx,

Omar

 

Hi Omar,

 

Can you elaborate slightly what aspect you wish to discuss ?, eg automatic sorting possibilities ? (just speculating, not my area).

[Mohamed Ibrahim]

Wish to discuss, as you know potato products nature coming with a lot of rocks and stones from land, so how they mitigate the risk of non-metal hazards, do they have x-ray? what they are detecting from it ? and if not having an x-ray , what is the likelihood of such issue in internal detection system or external " consumer complaint ",

 

Overall , how they eliminate the non-metal hazards in frozen potato products?

 

Thanks,

Omar

[Charles.C]

Thanks Omar.

 

I think there are a few potato people occasionally on this Forum. May hv to wait a little though.

 

Here's a starter -

 

 potato.pdf   803.21KB   94 downloads

 

 

 

[Mohamed Ibrahim]

Thanks Charles , if you have the full process will be much appreciated ,

I will wait till someone from potato manufacturers reply.

 

Thanks again,

Omar

[wrighty]

Hi Omar
I'm a Technical Manager in a potato pack house would do you need to know

[Mohamed Ibrahim]

Hi Wrighty,

I need to understand how you mitigate the metal and nonmetal hazards from your process ? do you have x-ray ? metal detector ? what is the limits?

[Mohamed Ibrahim]

Hi Omar
I'm a Technical Manager in a potato pack house would do you need to know

Need to know some details about the control of metallic and non metallic hazards in frozen potato industry,do you have x-ray , MD , what are the limits ? what type of hazards you are getting?

[wrighty]

We supply to the retail, further processing etc. one of our customers is a well known frozen chip manufacturer, we supply the raw material to them for their chips, wedges and jacket potatoes
We supply both washed and dirty potatoes, we have no metal detectors based on RA, as the product goes for further processing. With stones we have de-stoners on all washers to remove stones. Failing that we have experience graders on every line to remove any FB which happen to get through the system
Dirty bagged potatoes are also hand graded to remove any FB.

We have had no complaints for metal or stone which originated from our facility

Hope this helps

[Mohamed Ibrahim]

We supply to the retail, further processing etc. one of our customers is a well known frozen chip manufacturer, we supply the raw material to them for their chips, wedges and jacket potatoes
We supply both washed and dirty potatoes, we have no metal detectors based on RA, as the product goes for further processing. With stones we have de-stoners on all washers to remove stones. Failing that we have experience graders on every line to remove any FB which happen to get through the system
Dirty bagged potatoes are also hand graded to remove any FB.

We have had no complaints for metal or stone which originated from our facility

Hope this helps

 

We supply to the retail, further processing etc. one of our customers is a well known frozen chip manufacturer, we supply the raw material to them for their chips, wedges and jacket potatoes
We supply both washed and dirty potatoes, we have no metal detectors based on RA, as the product goes for further processing. With stones we have de-stoners on all washers to remove stones. Failing that we have experience graders on every line to remove any FB which happen to get through the system
Dirty bagged potatoes are also hand graded to remove any FB.

We have had no complaints for metal or stone which originated from our facility

Hope this helps

So you don't have also an x-ray? right?

[wrighty]

no x-ray or metal detector, have worked in 3 potato pack houses and all 3 did not have them

[Mohamed Ibrahim]

I would like to thank you for your reply which helped me a lot, need to know what about frozen fries factories, I think your product is whole potato " tuber", so frozen fries factories supported by MD /X-rays?

Thanks,

Omar

[Karenconstable]

Hi Omar,

 

A factory making frozen fries would wash, peel and slice potatoes.  Potato slicers get very badly damaged if non-potato contaminants hit the slicer heads so even without considering consumer safety issues, it's highly likely that any operation that involves cutting potatoes at high speed will be very very careful about removal of stone and metal from the incoming raw potatoes prior to slicing.  

 

In my experience this is done by floating the potaotes across a water bath and lifting them off the bath with a wide aperture roller or belt: the stones and metal contaminants sink, while any floating contaminants like stems or twigs fall through the rollers.   In this part of the process metal detection and X-Rays are unneccessary.

 

After further processing, such as blanching, frying and packing there may be a risk of physical contaminants from worn or broken machinery parts.  These could be detected and removed by metal detection or XRays.  Although it should always depend on the level of risk, many food safety plans would include a CCP to control physical contamination hazards.  Typically the CCP would be just prior to packing or immediately after packing.  Large customers may require metal detection or Xray processes to be used before they will purchase the product. 

[Charles.C]

Re - MDs, X-Ray

 

Wish to discuss, as you know potato products nature coming with a lot of rocks and stones from land, so how they mitigate the risk of non-metal hazards, do they have x-ray? what they are detecting from it ? and if not having an x-ray , what is the likelihood of such issue in internal detection system or external " consumer complaint ",

 

Overall , how they eliminate the non-metal hazards in frozen potato products?

 

Thanks,

Omar

 

Any answer re X-ray/MD/etc may depend on the exact process, ie how much processing is involved (eg Post 9).

 

Regardless, it seems that X-Ray units are are rare (maybe zero). How is X-ray cost compared to MD ? I anticipate >>.

 

Here is a, prob. oldish, haccp plan for frozen peas with fairly extensive processing. First stages look to be (process) similar to potatoes >>  magnet + MD but no X-Ray.

 

 haccp plan - Frozen Vegs (Peas).pdf   593.57KB   55 downloads

[Jim E.]

Hi Omar

 

I am a HACCP Coordinator in a French fry facility.  We have numerous pieces of equipment on our line to remove foreign material.  Also, our raw suppliers inspect raw at their sites as it is loaded into trucks for delivery. We have dirt and stone removal equipment, multiple barrel washers, FM sorting equipment and visual inspection on the lines. There is always a potential for material to get through the system but every step is taken to mitigate the issue.  We do have metal detectors on all our packaging lines which do a good job but are not 100% effective and we do get the rare complaint for metal material found in the product. Our metal detectors are set up for 2.0mm Ferrous, 2.0mm non-ferrous and 2.5mm stainless steel.  We also have an x-ray unit on our formed line for stones and glass. Stone removal is very effective to a size of 3.0mm.  Glass we have never found but then we also have had no complaints.

 

Jim

[Mohamed Ibrahim]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your detailed reply,

So I understand that your X-ray catches stones although you have stone removal equipment? how often do yo get stones catches from x-ray?

 

Thx,

Omar