Detecting foreign material in meat, poultry processing

The detection of foreign material is always a priority in the meat and poultry processing industry. The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has strict guidelines on the presence of foreign material on broiler meat, with any product contaminated with foreign material to be segregated and decontaminated or discarded accordingly.

“Detection of foreign material is important in processing poultry to guarantee the safety of the product, meet the legal requirement and to consumer health,” said Dongyi Wang, assistant professor of food science at the University of Arkansas. “Presumably, undiscovered foreign bodies like plastic, metal, or other organic material may injure the consumers and lead to product recalls; erode the company’s reputation; and entail heavy costs.”

That’s why effective detection systems are needed to ensure quality control and maintain consumer trust in the brand. Each processing plant will have its own procedures in place for monitoring foreign contamination and removing the contaminant from production.

Jason Morroni, associate director of quality assurance and corporate auditing for Rastelli Foods Group, Swedesboro, NJ, noted implementing effective detection systems, such as metal detectors and X-ray machines, helps streamline the production process by quickly identifying and removing contaminated products. This reduces waste and ensures that only safe products reach the market.

“Testing for foreign materials with X-rays is standard procedure,” said Hudson Thames, PhD, assistant professor of poultry processing at Mississippi State University. “The detectors utilized now have an impressive sensitivity to the point that materials around 1 mm to 2 mm in size can be detected. It does depend on what material it is though. Calcified bone and metal are much easier to detect at smaller sizes.”

Juan DeVillena, senior vice president of quality assurance and food safety for Wayne-Sanderson Farms, Oakwood, Ga., said the evolution of foreign material detection has grown rapidly over the last five years.