PACKAGING
By Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute
Food Packaging:
Supplying Safety
ederal perspective on food safety shifted in January
2011, when the Food Safety Modernization Act
(FSMA) was made law and the U.S. government’s
strategy became preventing, rather than responding
to, contamination issues. The law required an
updated food recall search engine with greater detail and a
more user-friendly format than its predecessor’s.
With assistance from their machinery and materials
suppliers, consumer goods packagers have responded quickly
to the new regulations, in part with the suppliers’ aid.
F
Machinery and material
suppliers innovate for food
safety
Find Trouble Before It Starts
“Contamination threats exist in each step of the food
chain,” explains a Packaging Machinery Manufacturers
Institute (PMMI) member. “This means there is more
pressure than ever before on the food industry and its
suppliers to put systems, programs and methodologies in
place that will elevate the safety of the nation’s food supply
to an ever higher level.”
Product inspection technology controls underfill and
overfill, analyzes and measures various food constituents or
detects contaminants in packaged, bulk and piped food and
pharmaceutical products.
“We help protect brands and keep processing and
packaging operations running smoothly using accurate
checkweighers, sensitive metal detectors, high-performing
X-ray systems and efficient in-line food analyzers. This puts
us in an ideal position to partner with food processors to
deliver technology that will help them meet their safety
objectives.”
Innovation allows food companies
equipping their operations with state-of-
the-art product processing and inspection
instruments to minimize safety risks
and optimize production, encouraging
a thorough review of each customer’s
product inspection capabilities to consider
requirements in the following equipment/
instrument categories:
•;Physical;contaminant;and;quality
control inspection
•;Irradiation;measurement
•;Viscosity,;elasticity,;processability;and
temperature
•;In-line;product;constituent;analysis
•;Ingredient;verification,;especially;on
machinery that handles known allergens
•;Facilitating;sanitation
•;Eliminating;nooks;and;crannies;where
bacteria can escape detection and
sanitation
•;Incorporating;components;that;prevent
bacteria from growing
•;Designing;machinery;that;is;very;robust
and can survive frequent treatment with
cleaning chemicals and high-pressure/
-temperature water
Further, equipment manufacturers need
to work more closely than ever with their
customers to understand their customers’
food safety concerns and initiatives. “It
is going to take a concerted effort by all
in the supply chain to make sure that
the latest safety objectives are met,” the
supplier concludes.
On the equipment manufacturing
side of the fence, it is incumbent upon
companies to design and manufacture
equipment that helps minimize bacterial
contamination by:
Giving Products the Green Light
One packaging supplier was ahead of
the mandate, introducing an automated
system for measuring bacterial aerobic
plate count (APC) that targets meat,
seafood, dairy and produce companies and
labs with high-throughput requirements.
