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A Meaty Task

Seeking to receive a BRC certification, one of Belgium’s meat top producers, De Keyser, turns to LOMA SYSTEMS® and their pipeline metal detection technology.

De Keyser, one of Belgium’s top producers of manufactured meats and part of the Remic NV Group, specialises in the production of sausages, cooked and dried hams, pate, salami and bacon. With three production sites in Europe employing 220 staff and generating annual sales worth 45 million euros, Remic NV and more specific, De Keyser’s products, span much further afield than its hometown in Belgium.

Food safety and quality are paramount to De Keyser so the company called upon Loma Systems to support them in maintaining high standards by ensuring no metal particles contaminated their product. By the end of the process, the company had a total of three pipeline metal detectors and four conveyor belt metal detectors installed at the Belgian production sites. In addition, two conveyor belt detectors were installed at the French site in Lens.

These tightened quality standards in 2004 were in part due to De Keyser’s application to receive a British Retail Consortium (BRC) certification. The BRC is a local trade association for the UK retail industry, which represents approximately 80 – 90% of retailers in the UK. To be eligible for the certificate, De Keyser needed to install metal detectors across all of its production lines.

Kris Francoys, Director at De Keyser explained, “Until 2004 we had been using a competitor’s conveyor belt detectors in our Belgian site which only covered a limited number of our production lines. Since then, our company has grown and we now supply to large retailers, wholesalers and slicing companies. For this reason, coupled with our BRC accreditation, we have to ensure we take all necessary steps to provide quality assured products without the risk of contamination.”

Francoys continued, “Before using LOMA’s machines we had incidents where some of our slicing customers found metal fragments in our products. For example, we use metal clips on a number of our sausage products, so there was always a risk that debris from the clips could fall into the products. It was almost impossible to determine whether the metal was in the products before they reached the customer or whether it came from their slicing tools. We have overcome this problem now thanks to LOMA’s metal detectors.”

Sausages are one of De Keyser’s key product lines where both clipped and twisted sausages are produced. LOMA’s pipeline metal detectors have been installed on both De Keyser’s clipped and twisted sausage production lines. On the twisted sausage line, the pipeline detector is attached to a Handtmann meat stuffer and a linkerdrive developed by LOMA in partnership with Handtmann, which turns and twists the sausages to close them.

Conveyor belt metal detectors are used on products that are packed into trays and are placed just in front of the labeling line. Francoys concluded, “We are delighted we chose LOMA SYSTEMS to assist in our production. They have met all our contaminant detection requirements and have helped us reach improved levels of customer satisfaction. We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with LOMA SYSTEMS.”