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Tips for CCP metal detection on packaging

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mjacobsen

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Posted 02 December 2017 - 01:01 AM

Hello,

    I am a quality assurance member for a pet food company.  I had a general question plus a request of a tip.  For our CCP on metal detecting on our packaging side we use 3 bags filled with rice along with small balls of SS, NFE and FE.  Over time however the rice looks yellowish, smells a little, plus the plastic bags have broken open on several times.  Any suggestions out there for something for us to use to do our metal detector tests.  BTW we already have wands with 1mm balls of the FE, NFE and SS but with the way our machine is setup the arm that would kick off the wands had a tendency to play hockey with them and send them flying sometimes.



Sandima

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Posted 04 December 2017 - 08:13 PM

We can have similar problems so we put the wand and package of product in a clear plastic bag before putting them through the detector.  We tried just taping them to the package but they still became projectiles some times.



Gerard H.

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Posted 05 December 2017 - 08:05 PM

Dear M Jacobsen,

 

Thanks for your speaking description of the situation.

 

It would be a good idea to sit with your food safety team and look to the different options. The most obvious would be to choose another rejection system. There are several systems in use for the rejection of non-conforming items (and which are equally reliable). It's better to go for a less "violent" one, to avoid damage of the packaging causing a lot of product everywhere. I imagine the work it gives to clean all the rice which is spilled.

 

The metal dummies shall be changed during a limited amount of time. You can date a new dummy and put in your procedure, that it should be changed in "X" days. Just before it's getting yellowish and starting to smell.

 

I hope I could give you some ideas.

 

Kind regards,

 

Gerard Heerkens



GMO

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Posted 11 December 2017 - 12:27 PM

The one thing I'd say is I'm betting you're not packing rice as the petfood, right?  Sorry to ask a stupid question but why on earth is rice an appropriate substitute for your actual product?  I can't see how you've got away with this?



FurFarmandFork

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Posted 11 December 2017 - 11:18 PM

If rice is there purely as "bulk" rather than an actual product surrogate, PET pellets may be a better solution so that you don't have old rice lying around.


Austin Bouck
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Consulting for companies needing effective, lean food safety systems and solutions.

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Madam A. D-tor

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Posted 14 December 2017 - 08:13 AM

The one thing I'd say is I'm betting you're not packing rice as the petfood, right?  Sorry to ask a stupid question but why on earth is rice an appropriate substitute for your actual product?  I can't see how you've got away with this?

 

This is the same question which I directly had on my mind.

Why don't you use the product that you are producing at the moment of the test?


Kind Regards,

Madam A. D-tor

mjacobsen

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Posted 15 December 2017 - 02:36 AM

I appreciate all the feed back.  Can't explain why we use rice instead of the product.  Just started a few weeks ago so it was in place before I started.  The PET pellets was a great idea and works great.



Madam A. D-tor

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Posted 15 December 2017 - 01:37 PM

I appreciate all the feed back.  Can't explain why we use rice instead of the product.  Just started a few weeks ago so it was in place before I started.  The PET pellets was a great idea and works great.

 

How will you know that the PET pellets react the same as your products? Will you validate this?

Was this also validated for the rice?

 

The material to be detected have influence on the effect of the metal detector.


Kind Regards,

Madam A. D-tor

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GMO

GMO

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Posted 19 December 2017 - 09:19 AM

Completely agree with Madam A. D-tor.

 

In metal detection there is always a product signal.  That signal will vary on the water activity of your product, level of ionic compounds in there (so dissolved salt normally pushes up the signal).  It is important to test a metal detector with the correct product and the correct metal test sticks.  Why?

 

Imagine a situation where the dummy product you're using has a lower product signal than your real product.  You set up your metal detector to be able to reject your spiked packs but the combination of the metal test stick with the dummy pack is actually a lower signal than metal in a real pack.  That is likely to then lead to false rejects on your normal product.  You may think that's not a problem but not all retailers then accept product being retested and also a large number of false rejects then is likely to lead to staff not checking those packs as carefully as they should increasing the risk of real metal being sent out.

 

Imagine the situation where the dummy product has a higher product signal than your real packs.  Well then you're really screwed.  Why?  As the combined signal from the dummy pack and the metal stick will be higher than a real life situation where the metal stick is in product.  That means a metal contaminant of the same size as your metal test sticks is likely to pass through your metal detector resulting in an increased risk of real metal being sent out.

 

Now you might be thinking "hey, I've checked a few packs, it's fine, it's good enough, I don't get false rejects and it still works if I put it on a real pack."  Well if that is the case your metal detection test piece sizes are almost certainly too large and if you used real spiked packs, you would be able to reduce your test piece size or at least have a real awareness of what your test piece size should be. 

 

I am astounded no retailer nor third party auditor has picked this up and as presumably your product has a long shelf life there really isn't any excuse as you can keep the product spiked packs for some time too so it would cost you very little if anything more than what you're doing.
 

If you've not had the challenge yet, I'd anticipate it and it may even be a major (once someone with their head screwed on visits).  I would raise it at that level, possibly even critical if there is a significant product signal difference between the product and the dummy pack without the test stick.

 



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