Future-Proofing Food Production

Core four in tomorrow’s world

When approaching the needs of our future food supply chain, there is an overall understanding that simply increasing food production without ensuring the food is safe for consumption, would be counterintuitive, wasteful, and pose a risk to the health and safety of consumers. For food manufacturers, physical space restraints, cost production challenges, and sustainability agreements also need to be factored in when expanding production yields.

As modern and automated as many of today’s food factories are, they are entirely governed by increasingly tighter food safety, weight control, labeling and quality assurance regulations. New productivity levels are not attainable without innovative equipment solutions.

Metal detection, X-ray, vision inspection, and checkweighing are four inspection technologies that are revolutionizing how the food industry approaches production and regulatory compliance.

Although it is commonplace to see two of these technologies in combination inspection units or even multi-lane configurations, Fortress Technology eventually anticipates wider adoption and integration of all four in food production environments at the end of HACCP/HARPC processing and packaging lines. By doing this, the industry could see each technology’s respective performance synergistically enhanced, particularly when utilizing vision, data analysis, and AI tools.

The choice of equipment depends on the most prevalent risks identified through HACCP or HARPC planning.Image courtesy of Fortress Technology Inc.

Transforming food safety footprints

Not only do combination systems significantly reduce equipment footprint, but every aspect of that footprint provides value to the company.

Many of the perceived limitations of combination systems can usually be overcome with smart design considerations, customization and configuration flexibility, regular training, and localized support. The most important thing to note is that the performance and sensitivity of any technology in a combination system should never compromise the others.

For example, vision inspection could be applied to improve X-ray technology by providing a visual context to the pack being inspected. Vision systems could also help to enhance checkweigher performance by reading weight labels and provide physical information about pack separation.  Additionally, metal detection and X-ray could work in tandem to inspect for all types of physical contaminants. Where an X-ray can only detect higher density metals, metal detectors can detect both flat and “spherical” metal contaminants.

In more advanced systems, machine vision is likely to feature more strongly by the time the FDA final rule is applied at the start of 2026. For example, vision could be integrated more into combination metal detection and/or X-ray and checkweighing systems. 

When compared to purchasing multiple, individual inspection systems, the faster ROI, smaller footprint, and operational savings of a single inspection unit can be equally beneficial. As well as sales, services, parts, and technical support coming from one supplier, training and operating the equipment becomes easier and safer when there is only one user interface. Other cost savings are gained from faster installation, reduced training time, and increased operational efficiency.

With the future of food supply chains reliant on optimizing manufacturing spaces and food safety to their fullest extent, AI-driven All-In-One systems could very well be the single solution that elevates production and quality standards to a ground-breaking new level.