Metal detection for ready meals and convenience food
Ready meals can combine different ingredients, moisture levels and packaging types in one application. Our metal detection systems are configured around the complete product to provide reliable inspection without complicating production.
Multiple ingredients mean multiple potential sources
- Everything the ingredients bring with them. A ready meal contains meat, vegetables, sauce and starch — each with its own upstream supply chain and its own contamination history
- Dicing and portioning equipment handling multiple components in sequence
- Filling and dosing heads on sauce and gravy stations
- Tray sealing equipment and film cutting knives
One line, many different products
In a multi-component meal the detector sees the whole pack. The component with the strongest product effect — usually a salted sauce or gravy — sets the achievable sensitivity for the entire product, even if the rest of the meal would be easy.
The challenge is therefore flexibility. A metal detector for ready meals should make it easy to change between products, store individual settings and return to a previous recipe without starting the setup again.
Not sure what can be detected in your specific product? Send us a sample. You get a written test report with false reject rate and probability of detection — free and normally within a week.
What we typically supply
Finished packed meals
Complete unit with conveyor and reject after tray sealing.
Before assembly
Detector head over the component line, before the meal is assembled and sealed.
Sauces and gravies
Pipeline detector in the sauce circuit before dosing.
New lines are the best moment to get this right
Convenience is one of the fastest-growing segments, which means a lot of lines are being built rather than retrofitted. Specifying detection at the design stage is dramatically cheaper than retrofitting: aperture size, belt height and reject arrangement are free decisions on a drawing and expensive ones on a commissioned line.
If you are working with a machine builder or integrator, we supply detector heads with interface drawings so the detection module does not hold up the project.