Is X-ray inspection safe for contaminant detection in the food industry
1 May 2018
X-ray inspection is fast becoming retailers preferred route for contaminant detection in certain applications such as products in foil trays, but with this comes the question, Is X-ray inspection Safe?
By their very nature, X-ray inspection systems used for food inspection are safe and emissions are significantly less than many naturally occurring radiation sources such as media X-rays, Radon gas, Gamma decay in rocks, cosmic rays and even the sun!
Is X-ray inspection harmful to production employees?
LOMA's X-ray inspection systems are designed and built to meet strict legislative requirements governed by UK, EU and USA (FDA) regulations to ensure that they are safe to install and use. The X5 X-ray series also features radiation protection to ensure that emissions are kept below 1uSv/ hour during operation.
Lets put this into context;
The worlds average “background” rate of radiation is around 2.7mSv/yr. Working a 40-hour week for 48 weeks per year next to a LOMA X-ray system equates to 0.78 mSv/yr less.
Do X-rays affect the food?
Products pass through the tunnel at such rates that they spend around 0.4 second in the X-ray beam. The World Health Organisation (WHO) conducted a study in 1997 which confirmed that radiation levels of up to 10,000 Sv do not affect the products nutritional or safety value. – This dose is around 10 million times stronger than the exposure of using a LOMA X5 X-ray system for contaminant detection.
What are the benefits of X-ray inspection?
X-ray inspection in the food industry offers a wide range of benefits including;
- Detection of all metals
- Detection of glass, bone, ceramic/stone, dense plastics & product clumps
- Inspect product integrity
- Detecting missing items
- Individually inspect up to 6 products in a packet for volume, area, shape (e.g. Multi-pack of donuts)