A BRIGHT RESULT... LOMA X-RAY TECHNOLOGY DETECTS SO MUCH MORE
Brighter Foods innovate and manufacture snack bars in niche areas including slimming, sport, organic and 'Free From' bars for many brand partners across the globe. Their Brighter Foods journey started in 2014 with a small team of dedicated and experienced people where they didn’t follow the usual path and chose to set-up in a rural coastal town in West Wales, with no major transport links and no banks to support the business.
Their focus, determination and support from a small number of private investors, a close-knit community, the Welsh and local Government, has made them a highly successful manufacturer of food bars, now employing over 300 people and producing over 1-million bars per day.
Challenges for Brighter Foods
Previously, Brighter Foods used Loma metal detectors and were satisfied with their metal contamination detection results. However, an increasing number of customers had been adding to their code of practice (COP) the requirement for even greater checks through the use of X-ray inspection.
Plus, Brighter Food’s BRC audit highlighted they should consider X-ray inspection as offers many quality and safety benefits.
As well as looking beyond metal contaminant, they also wanted the additional comfort of checking the number of bars per box and undamaged packaged product. These checks were time consuming and susceptible to human error, therefore they were looking for a solution to improve their product checking processes.
The Brief
With Loma metal detectors already used by Brighter Foods, they approached Loma to investigate how X-ray might benefit their business and assist in checking the product integrity of their snack bars.
Brighter Foods key facts:
- Over 1-million bar capacity each day
- Employs over 300 people
LOMA's Solution
- X5c X-ray system
- Checks for contaminants and product integrity, with Air blast reject.
To see how Loma's X-ray systems can help your application or for general information call +44 (0) 1252 893300 or email on the link below.
The Solution
Following a full audit of Brighter Foods’ current operation, Loma presented the solution of the Loma X5C compact with air blast reject systems to detect and remove contaminated product into a lockable stainless steel reject bin. The machine offered Loma’s X-ray technology with a small footprint that could easily fit into a relatively narrow production line length.
Along with the X5C checking for a wide selection of contaminants from metal to hard plastics, it analyses the product’s integrity, including counting the number of bars within the pack, checking the volume per bar, and ensuring the product is undamaged. In the event of any defect, the product is quickly removed from the production line and logged on the system, so Brighter Foods can investigate.
Like all Loma machines, the X5C can be configured to suit the latest code of practice (COP) to ensure compliance. It also has a simplified, yet powerful inspection feature set, plug and play installation and software, reliable inspection and low ongoing running costs.
David John, Engineering Manager, Brighter Foods shares:
“Having had experience of Loma previously, Brighter Foods were happy to select Loma again. We are always looking at how to do things even better and this helps underpin our strong quality values.
With the X5C in place this gives us extra peace of mind that the products we ship are to the highest quality and reduced the requirements to complete manual checks. Overall the performance and reliability the Loma X5C delivers has surpassed my expectations and we can feel comfortable in the knowledge that every bar we ship has been quality and safety checked. Our customers are very happy we have these checks in place.”
The Benefits for Brighter Foods
- Upgrading from metal detection to X-ray, Brighter Foods can now detect so much more.
- The X5C was the perfect size to fit into their production line.
- Increased monitoring of the quality of the finished product.
- Helps instill a 'right first time' approach which has improved productivity.
- Manual checks now automated and so improved use of people resources and all checks to the same standard.
“Given our experience of LOMA, we would recommend them as a supplier of metal detection and X-ray monitoring. We have had great support from the LOMA team to get the product right and our team are very positive towards using the numerous X5C’s on site, helped by the fact they are intuitive to use.”
“The Loma X-ray X5C solution gives us total peace of mind as I now know within each pack we ship there are the correct number of bars, the correct volume and all product is checked for any possible contaminants.”
David John, Engineering Manager, Brighter Foods
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