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Taking on hard-to-inspect tortilla packs

Metal detectors ensure the safety of Arevalo Foods’ tortillas while providing accuracy and versatility to its food safety protocol.

The Montebello, California-based company uses metal detectors from Mettler-Toledo Safeline to detect contaminants in tortillas.
The Montebello, California-based company uses metal detectors from Mettler-Toledo Safeline to detect contaminants in tortillas.

It’s not easy ensuring the quality and food safety of 3.5 million tortillas a day. But Arevalo Foods has done just that. The Montebello, California-based company uses metal detectors from Mettler-Toledo Safeline to detect contaminants in its various tortillas — a product notoriously difficult to inspect — delivering accuracy and versatility to its food safety system along the way.

 

Arevalo offers one of the largest selections of corn and flour tortillas in the world, selling to foodservice, private label and co-packing customers globally. Achieving double-digit growth over the last three years, the family-owned company credits its success in part to its commitment to consistently producing high-quality and safe products. That includes investing in a HACCP- and SQF-certified manufacturing facility that exceeds industry standards, according to the company. To further ensure the safety and quality of its tortillas, Arevalo installed three Profile Advantage metal detectors from Mettler-Toledo Safeline two years ago.

 

“We started researching new metal detectors when we won a new nationwide customer that required detection levels far beyond regulatory requirements. We spoke with multiple suppliers and considered reliability, sanitary design, ease of use and, of course, accuracy,” says Daniel Arevalo, vice president of Arevalo Foods. “We chose Mettler-Toledo because we have other metal detectors from them in our facility, and they’re fantastic. We were so impressed by our first two Profile Advantage systems that we ordered another one in 2018. Now we’re planning to replace all of our older metal detectors.”

 

Conquering challenges

Arevalo currently relies on the Profile Advantage metal detectors to inspect its main tortilla products: heat-pressed tortillas, die-cut tortillas and hand-stretched tortillas. The tortillas are between 6 and 14 in. in size and packaged in four- to 30-count bags, as well as bulk packages. Metal detection is the final step on the three lines prior to case packing.

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