How X-ray inspection can protect and enhance your brand

Increasing demands call for higher standards in trim inspection

With market trends including more health-conscious consumers, pricing pressure from supermarkets, increasing litigation and stricter regulatory standards, there’s almost no scope for error when it comes to fat analysis and detection of hard contaminants.

Fragments of bone, metal, and glass can cause injuries and illness, and inaccurate chemical lean (CL) values can lead to costly complaints. Facing the severe risks of harm to consumers, product recalls, litigation, fat claims, loss of customers and reputational damage, many processors are seeking more effective methods of trim inspection.

Fortunately, advancements in trim inspection technology offer great opportunities to improve safety and CL accuracy while also streamlining production and reducing giveaway.

This article outlines how X-ray inspection helps you to overcome these challenges and earn an outstanding reputation for quality that will give your company a competitive edge.

Virtually eliminate product recalls

Product recalls are an essential measure to protect consumer safety in the event of food contamination. However, once the risk to consumers has been eliminated, processors are left facing severe consequences for their brand.

The costs of a recall are enormous, both in terms of direct financial impact and harder-to-quantify reputational damage. This is especially true in today’s era of social media, where negative consumer experiences can spread across the globe in a matter of minutes.

The good news? Modern X-ray inspection technology is making it easier than ever to prevent contamination due to bone, glass and metal. X-ray technology is far more effective than traditional methods and is overtaking manual inspection as the global industry standard.

X-ray inspection makes it possible to offer outstanding levels of consistency, accuracy and safety, giving you the peace of mind that your products meet the most stringent quality standards.

Minimize customer claims for off-spec products

Food recalls are not the only threat to company reputation and profits. Producers of products such as burgers, sausages, meatballs and ground meat operate on tight margins, and even small inefficiencies and errors quickly add up to significant losses.

Retailers, supermarkets and QSR customers are demanding higher accuracy in fat-to-lean measurement than ever before. Incorrect CL values lead to lost profits due to fat claims, giveaway of lean meat and damage to your reputation caused by off-spec products. At the same time, ineffective trim inspection may fail to detect issues with incoming trim purchased from suppliers.

Unlike traditional fat analysis methods, X-ray inspection measures CL exceptionally accurately from the first stages of processing, so you can guarantee that the supplies you purchase and the products you produce meet CL targets every time. This enables you to guarantee the quality of your meat and eliminate the costs associated with off-spec products and customer claims.

Gain a competitive edge

A fine line divides success and failure in today’s highly competitive meat industry. To compete, your company must be able to differentiate itself by producing the highest quality products and earning a reputation for consistent excellence.

X-ray inspection gives you the confidence that you are always providing customers and the end consumer with consistent, on-spec, contaminant-free meat products. This helps to keep your existing customers loyal and attracts new contacts with the guarantee that your products are of the highest quality.

SensorX Magna can help build your reputation for quality

Marel’s SensorX Magna is a unique meat inspection system that detects and eliminates hard contaminants such as bone, glass and metal at the very start of the production process. The system uses industry-leading X-ray technology to monitor the incoming meat supply and ensure it is contaminant-free before it’s ground and formed into the end product.

SensorX Magna also ensures the most efficient and accurate fat-to-lean ratio measurements available at full production speed. It measures CL at the very start of the grinding and mixing process, giving a level of control over the blending of fat and lean meat that was previously unattainable.

SensorX Magna gives everyone in the meat value chain complete confidence that bone, metal and glass have been removed and CL of the final product is on target. Ultimately, this means that consumers, customers and your brand are protected from the risks of contamination and inaccurate CL measurement.

Want to learn more about SensorX Magna?