CT vs X-Ray: Expert Insights on the Future of Food Safety
In this special webinar featuring a conversation between FlexXray ‘s Chief Product Officer Kye Luker and BIOMETiC’s Head of Sales & Engineering Giancarlo Zane, they discuss the exciting rollout of BIOMETiC’s industry-leading CT inspection machines at FlexXray facilities nationwide.
Our experts delve into the unique capabilities of CT technology in food inspection and contrast it with traditional X-ray methods, including:
- The ways CT technology enhances the detection of foreign materials in food
- How it tackles the challenges that have long plagued the industry
Explore the future of foreign material inspection and understand how our strategic partnership is poised to revolutionize the landscape of food safety.
What CT Helps Us See Better vs. Traditional X-ray
1. The Limitations of Traditional 2D X-ray Inspection
Traditional X-ray systems, even those using multi-source configurations, operate in 2D, meaning they capture flat projections of a product. This creates significant blind spots when detecting contaminants, especially if the foreign material is thin, aligned with the product structure, or masked by dense packaging.
Common challenges include:
- Orientation issues: Contaminants like thin wires, plastic, rubber gaskets, or glass fragments may go undetected if they are aligned with the X-ray beam of conventional 2D X-ray inspection systems.
- Density masking: Heavier product components or packaging can obscure contaminants, making them indistinguishable.
- Limited depth analysis: 2D X-ray systems rely on contrast differences to identify foreign materials, but this contrast might be insufficient in products with complex structures.
2. The Advantage of Computed Tomography (CT) with BIOMETiC Mito
Mito overcomes these challenges using real-time, in-line 3D Computed Tomography (CT). Unlike traditional X-rays, Mito’s rotating gantry scans products at 360 degrees, reconstructing them into high-resolution volumetric data (voxels instead of pixels). This allows for:
- Complete real-time 3D visualization of products, ensuring contaminants are visible regardless of their orientation.
- Separation of overlapping structures, revealing contaminants that would be hidden in a 2D projection.
- Improvement of detection of difficult foreign materials, including thin wires, plastic, rubber gaskets, and glass fragments in glass jars.
- Inline operation at industrial speeds, something previously only available in slow, laboratory CT scanners.
3. Real-World Impact on Food Safety
By integrating CT into food safety processes, manufacturers benefit from:
- Greater efficiency: Automated inspection and rejection ensure high throughput without slowing down production.
- Reduced false rejects: The detailed 3D analysis prevents unnecessary product waste.
- Enhanced Detection Accuracy: Identifies contaminants even when deeply embedded within products or positioned in blind spots that traditional 2D X-ray inspection systems cannot detect.
Mito is a game-changer for food safety, allowing manufacturers to detect contaminants with unmatched precision. Our partnership with FlexXray – a leader in adopting advanced detection technologies that help food producers minimize the impact of foreign material contamination on their products and food safety, extends this technology beyond in-line use, offering manufacturers a second layer of protection with batch-release inspections.
Together, we’re setting a new industry standard for food safety.
