Detection Of Foreign Objects In Food

Anything that has been found in food which is not reasonably expected to be found by a consumer during consumption refers to foreign objects in food.

- Anurag Mishra

This makes the food unfit for consumption. For example, things like stones, rocks, glass, hard plastic, or sharp material may wind up in food. As well as some ingredients that are not supposed to be in consumable food items or were not listed as an ingredient on the label and the consumer did not expect them to be present in food, would be considered as a foreign object.

Presence of foreign objects in food increases the risk of consumer dissatisfaction, regulatory risk, chances of a product recall, and in some instances it may damage the brand image. As per reports, a total of 40+ extraneous material recalls were issued in the U.S. in 2017, with metal (12) and plastic (11) contaminations topping the list in this category.

Last year, more than 60,000 kilograms of chicken nuggets were recalled after famous nugget manufacturer found out that their nuggets might have bits of hard plastic inside them. The USDA fielded complaints from naive nugget consumers who said they’d found strips of plastic up to about 20 millimeters long inside their chicken. After this incident, the company mentioned in a statement that they had installed sufficient numbers of metal detectors and the nuggets were run through those detectors before reaching out to the consumers, but who knew that these detectors would be unable to catch the plastic pieces.

To avoid such issues, manufacturers must deploy a suitable mechanism to detect and eliminate any possible foreign object in the finished goods. Selection of the mechanism must be based out of basic risk assessment and the type of possible foreign object in the entire process.