As a food company, when you were first starting out there was a point when it was necessary to make a list of any and all required food packaging equipment. Did you think to add an x-ray food inspection machine to the list? It is an uncomfortable thought, to think about the bits and pieces of non-food that could end up in our food packages.
But just as a food company will have checkweigher machines or pouch filling machines, it would be a mistake to not add even a simple x-ray food inspection machine to the line up. It only takes one tiny particle to be found by a customer in one of your food packages to cause a nasty lawsuit and future inspections. Your reputation may never fully recover.
At this point, you may wonder just what an x-ray food inspection accomplishes. It is more than a food metal detector, although it does detect the main three groups of metallic contaminants commonly found in food (stainless steel, ferrous, and non-ferrous, if you were wondering).
These machines can detect a piece of foreign matter smaller than 1.5 millimeters, which beats a metal detector’s sensitivity, which can only detect foreign matter if it is at least 2.5 millimeters. An irate customer does not care about a millimeter’s difference, they just don’t want it in their food.
The packaging industry has had a hard time over the last decade. People are more aware about environmental concerns, and want to see their purchasing choices reflect their values. This may be through advertising that the food package is made with recycled materials, or even to simply remind customers to recycle the package once the food is consumed. As much as 60% of the population has access to one plastics recycling program or another, so it is not a bad area to focus on.
Some customers are not focused so much on the environment and their role within it as they are on their overall health. These consumers like food packages that clearly proclaim the health benefits of eating on food over another. These packages tend to loudly proclaim how eating this product can maybe lower one’s risk of heart disease, or another may promote its assistance in maintaining regularity. People want to trust the brand behind the food they are buying.
Your company fights hard to win customers and keep them. Don’t be your own worst enemy by not ensuring that your product is perfectly safe for consumption. Take the time to ensure each package is scanned before hitting the shelves. You’ll be glad you did.