Meat + Poultry - July 2016 - 36

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

"Metal detectors detect
metal contamination, X-ray
systems detect a wider
range of contaminants
(including plastics) and
machine vision systems
ensure correct labeling to
avoid misprinting of expiry
dates or allergens," said
Camilo Sanchez, Metal
Detection Product Manager
for Mettler Toledo.

36

said could be contaminated with "extraneous
materials" listed as sand and black soil. Earlier
this year, Foster Poultry Farms, Livingston,
California, recalled more than 220,000 lbs.
of frozen cooked chicken because of foreign
materials. Processors of all types and sizes
have experienced detection-related recalls.
Huisken Meat Company, Sauk Rapids,
Minnesota, recently issued a recall of nearly
90,000 lbs. of its Black Angus Vidalia Onion
burgers that could have been contaminated
with foreign materials. Last fall, Kenosha
Beef International LTD, Kenosha, Wisconsin,
recalled almost the same amount - nearly
90,000 lbs. - of its pork sausage patty products
that had been contaminated with materials,
reportedly including small pieces of metal.
Smaller recalls still cause concerns and
announcements, even if the public health risk
is low. In February, a Hormel Foods Corp. plant
in Tucker, Georgia, had to recall 450 lbs. of
Dinty Moore Beef Stew after inspectors found
pieces of a broken flashlight in a production
area and realized that 40 cases produced
during the time of the accident had gone on
through the distribution chain.
In addition to meat and poultry, other types
of food products have been hit by the same
kind of high profile recalls, from Kraft Macaroni
and Cheese to Nestlé's Stouffers, Lean Cuisine
and DiGiorno brands of frozen foods.
FSIS is regularly on the case of discovering,

MEAT+ POULTRY | 07.16 | www.meatpoultry.com

reporting on and alerting the public about
contaminants in the food system. FSIS
reported that "possible foreign matter
detection" spurred recalls of 784,000 lbs. of
products in 2015; that number is expected to
increase this year, given 2016 public issuances
and recalls. FSIS has also announced possible
contamination by foreign objects in several
imported products, including chicken nuggets
from Maxi Canada, Inc.
It's not quite like looking for a needle in a
haystack, but finding foreign material is akin to
searching for a small piece of metal in a food
product bound for human consumption, and
that makes early detection imperative. FSIS has
defined foreign contaminants as metal, plastic,
rubber, glass, wood and steel that are not part
of the animal. While naturally occurring in the
animal, bone fragments can be problematic and
pose a safety challenge as well.
Despite recalls that make headlines, the
industry and processors have made strides
in food safety tied to foreign contaminants.
Keith Belk, Ph.D., professor and chair of the
Center for Meat Safety & Quality in the Dept.
of Animal Science at Colorado State Univ.,
says processors make detection a priority
and have embraced technologies to prevent
contaminants. "Every plant does what it can.
They take it very seriously, and almost all of
them are GFSI plants and have gone through
extensive foreign object controls that are well
beyond what the federal government requires,"
he remarks. Belk notes that recent situations in
which FSIS put foreign contaminant detection
more in the public discourse came about in
part because of that agency's discovery of new
HACCP data and do not necessarily indicate
an increase in recalls or ongoing industry-wide
problems with contaminants.

TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES
To improve the safety of products and discover
contaminants early in the process, meat and
poultry companies deploy a variety of in-plant
detection technologies, including X-ray, metal
detectors and imaging systems.
X-ray technology is one of the most
common tools in detecting foreign objects
and bone fragments. "Most industries now
use X-ray technologies that can take the form
of a full-line system or a smaller system,"
reports Belk, who says detection technology
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