Impact of Food Contamination on Brands

Consumer safety is the cornerstone of every strong brand and leading business. Consumers not only expect food and beverage products to be safe, they rely on the companies that process and package those products to assure quality and safety. That means physical contaminants, in the form of foreign objects, must be detected and removed in production prior to shipment.

To produce and sell food products today, it is critical to fully understand how to specify, select, and use product inspection systems to fully support your quality policy and thus, your customers.

This comprehensive page and reference guide provide a high-level overview of how food safety issues can affect brands, and the steps brands can take to reduce and eliminate physical contaminants in food and beverage products.

To successfully protect packaged goods in the food and beverage industry from physical and foreign contaminants, companies create policies based on government or industry standards and regulations.

These policies rely on selecting the optimum detection technology to eliminate the most likely hazards in a cost-effective manner.
They ensure ongoing compliance via auditing and data archiving.
In some cases, retailers serving the consumer have developed their own detailed codes of practice that must be met by producers as a condition of business.

Protection from physical food contamination makes good business sense, and it all starts with an understanding of food safety.

What is Food Safety?

Food safety refers to the conditions and practices describing food handling, preparation, and storage to preserve quality and prevent physical contamination and food-borne illnesses.

It is in everyone’s best interest to ensure that food products purchased are safe to consume, and free of unintended contaminants that could cause illness or injury. So, in effect, food safety programs are a sort of public-private partnership. On the public side, for example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service oversees meat and poultry production, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees production of produce and processed foods.

On the private side, food and beverage producers create food safety programs that aim to prevent food supply contamination. They follow sanitary handling processing protocols and use various methods to detect and correct potential contamination as early as possible in the production process. For this reason, the rules and regulations that govern these programs vary by location as well as the product manufactured or service provided.

Many causes of food contamination are disease-related – bacterial infections of salmonella, listeria, E. coli, or botulinum or the presence of hepatitis A virus. However, physical contaminants or foreign material contaminants can come from a wide variety of sources. In the past decade, recalls have been triggered by findings of:

Bits of hard plastic
Bone fragments
Food-grade rubber pieces
Pieces of metal

Glass, stone and other objects can also pose dangerous contamination risks.

A Summary of Food Safety Statistics and Examples

The World Health Organization says unsafe foods cause more than 200 different diseases—some minor, some lethal. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control says about 1 in 6 Americans get sick from contaminated food or beverages every year. The annual financial cost of foodborne illnesses and foreign object contamination in the U.S. runs well into the billions.

In January 2024, the USDA issued two recalls, one was for foreign materials and affected 133,039 pounds of poultry products.
From 2013 to 2019, meat and poultry recalls—typically the most hazardous— increased by 85%.
In 2022, the FDA issued more than 400 recalls for food and food products; 24 percent of those recalls resulted from foreign object contamination.
In Q1 of 2023, foreign materials were the leading cause of recalls accounting for 65.5% of the total number of units recalled.
In Q4 of 2023, this number declined, and foreign material was the third leading cause of recall in both volume and events with 11 recalls which affected 674,599 units.

Regardless, for food and beverage brands, just one recall is all it takes to do lasting damage.

Food Safety Overview: The Principles of HACCP

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a systematic approach to hazard identification, risk assessment, and control. It originated in the 1960s, when the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Pillsbury Company, and the U.S. Army Laboratories collaborated to ensure safe food for upcoming space expeditions.

In the early 1970s, a safety incident with baby food manufactured at Pillsbury resulted in the company implementing a secure product safety system to minimize the likelihood of another product recall. Pillsbury then collaborated with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to create and present the first training courses designed to educate producers on this new quality framework. Since then, the seven basic HACCP principles have become the basis of international food safety policies and regulations worldwide:

Conduct a hazard analysis
Determine the critical control points (CCPs)
Define critical limits
Select monitoring procedures
Design corrective actions
Create verification procedures
Establish record-keeping and documentation processes

To explain by example, let’s look at how to apply these principles at a hypothetical packaged cereal manufacturer.

Sample HACCP Analysis

	HACCP Step	Process and Possible Conclusions
	Conduct a hazard analysis	Look at ingredients, production process and packaging approach. Metal objects are most common and cannot be 100% eliminated.
	Determine the critical control points (CCPs)	Metal contamination is possible at many steps in the process. To reduce scrap/rework, detect it in cereal production and at the end of the line after packaging.
	Define critical limits	Based on technology and risk, metal volume >= to a 2 mm sphere must be controlled. Tighter limits depend on the product type, detection system and cost, but they could result in higher false reject s. Three types of metal are commonly tested: Ferrous metals (iron), Non-ferrous metals (brass, copper, aluminium, and others) and Stainless Steel (Fe, Nfe and SS).
	Select monitoring procedures	Install a gravity metal detector immediately after forming/baking bulk cereal. Due to packaging (some metallized film used) X-ray inspection will be installed at the end of the line to assure no contaminants are inside a bag/box.
	Define corrective actions	Destroy product with random contaminants. If too many consecutive products are rejected, shut down to determine root cause. Also quarantine recent production to reinspect/scrap when possible.
	Create verification procedures	Set-up a process for on-line audits using Fe, Nfe, and SS samples defined as your limits. Run audits at the start of production and once every hour. If an audit fails reinspect or scrap production since the last successful audit.
	Establish recordkeeping and documentation processes	Set up a system to capture CCP data, and if available utilize built-in HACCP reports. If possible, use built-in software to time, execute and record audits too. Save the data periodically to a server for future analysis if needed.

Overview of Global Food Safety Standards

HACCP forms the core of numerous food safety standards around the world. These standards range from high-level guides to extremely detailed specifications created by standards bodies, government, industry, food producers, and retailers. Requirements can vary by region, food product/package, and producer.

It is critical to understand which standards apply to your production lines and how the vendor supplying your metal detectors or X-ray system can help you meet them. Ideally, this is done before purchase, so you are not forced to retrofit or replace non-compliant systems.

Note there are many commercial trainers and auditors around the world that can help ensure you are meeting the right standards in the best way possible. If you need assistance, CASSEL Inspection can assist you.

How Brands Can Minimize the Risk of Physical Contaminants and Foreign Material Contaminants

Best practices call for companies to adopt a formal action plan which recognizes that food quality and food safety go hand-in-hand. This ensures consistent execution and provides a framework for ongoing success. A plan designed to ensure food safety and protect brand reputation typically includes these elements:

Knowing the food safety standards that apply to your production lines
Controlling package quality to ensure the product never comes in contact with contaminants that could degrade quality or safety
Stress compliance tracing
Visual inspection
Food scale hygiene and maintenance
Use of checkweighers for verification

In addition to the above food safety steps, foreign-material detection equipment is critical to ensure food and beverage safety and avoid the costly negative consequences of a product recall. Visual inspection is not sufficient to detect all types of foreign objects, especially since contamination can occur at so many touch points during the production process.

Metal detectors and X-ray inspection systems are the most common CCPs for physical contaminants. These tools use the latest technology and automation to effectively—and cost-effectively—do the work humans cannot. Metal detectors can identify ferrous and non-ferrous metals as well as stainless steel. X-ray inspection can identify metallic foreign objects and also glass, stone, and some plastics.

Do you want to detect up to 50% smaller metal fragments? The Shark® MultiSense™ is the right choice for your challenging application. See our new technology now.

So, which type of physical contamination detection should you use?

With so many factors to consider, CASSEL Inspection’s Product Selection Tool can help you make the right decision.

If in doubt, work with your product inspection vendor to run tests using both technologies to compare performance. Review overall lifecycle cost, too. Then you can make an informed decision. Note that some high-quality retailers/customers may demand that X-ray inspection be used for the ultimate in brand protection.

Multi-faceted food safety programs that mitigate risk cost money. But the cost of prevention easily outweighs the multiple, serious ramifications of food product recalls:

Immediate direct expenses related to the recall, including corrective action and lost sales
Corporate embarrassment and brand reputation damage
Loss of confidence from consumers and supply chain customers that could result in lost future sales

How X-Ray Inspection Can Help Physical Contaminant and Foreign Material Detection

X-ray inspection is now common practice throughout the food and beverage industry worldwide. It is a safe, effective method of detecting physical contaminants from metals to glass, ceramics, and dense plastics. X-ray inspection machines can detect objects in packaged foods even if the packaging itself contains metalized films or foils that can cause false readings with a metal detector.

In addition to food safety protection, X-ray inspection can also confirm:

Fill level accuracy
Sufficient product roundness
Sufficient product count
Ripeness (in some products)

How Metal Detection Can Help Physical Contaminant and Foreign Material Detection

Metal detectors that serve the food and beverage industry provide benefits beyond exposing foreign objects during production:

The speed and accuracy of automated detection can eliminate the need for visual inspections
CASSEL Inspection’s metal detectors instantly alert and eject contaminated products to keep production lines moving
The presence of high levels of micro-metals can serve as an early warning of impending production equipment problems, allowing for maintenance or repair before a breakdown occurs
CASSEL food industry detectors meet IFS, BRG and FSMA standards

CASSEL Inspection employs a Performance Validation System (PVS) test in its metal detection and X-ray inspection software to fully support correct auditing. This software can be set to alert an operator when an audit is needed, display the audit results, and automatically save summary data as an audit trail. It will also alarm when an audit fails, requiring technical intervention.

But what happens if a CCP is changed prior to a suspected contamination and subsequent investigation? How can you be assured the data is always available?

The best way to safeguard your inspection data is to regularly archive it for easy access. The CASSEL Inspection Sharknet software does exactly this and more. It can generate statistical reports for any period, on any line, and store data in an SQL database so you can query on your own.

Ensuring food safety demands more than the installation of a simple metal detector. It requires thought, diligence, documentation, analysis, and continual improvement. Remember that foreign object detection technology is constantly evolving, so upgrade and replacement may be required periodically. The good news is your product inspection supplier is ready and able to help you in this regard, assuring whatever standards you must meet can be achieved or exceeded at a reasonable cost.

Key Takeaways on Brand Reputation and Product Safety

To protect your brand reputation and overall product safety in the food and beverage industry, consider these key takeaways:

Consumers and business customers expect quality and safety.
Adopting the right metal detection and/or X-ray inspection equipment helps ensure you can deliver on your brand’s promise of product safety.
Following food safety best practices also protects your brand’s reputation by dramatically reducing the risk of a product recall.
Thorough inspection and detection is an investment that produces priceless returns.

Interested in learning more? Review our Product Selector Tool to find the right option for your production line, or Request a Quote to inquire about a specific CASSEL Inspection product.

Impact of Food Contamination on Brands

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