← Food Safety Matters
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- [00:10]
A
Hello everyone and welcome to Food Safety Matters, the podcast for food safety professionals. I'm Stacy Acheson, publisher of Food Safety magazine, and I want to thank you for joining us for this special bonus episode today. Food Safety magazine's editorial director and co host of the podcast, Adrienne Blum welcomes back Kai Luker from Flexray to take a closer look at foreign material contamination, one of the most persistent challenges facing food manufacturers and a leading cause of food recalls. Every year they'll examine how new inspection approaches are helping food companies strengthen their foreign material control strategies, why some contaminants are still difficult to detect with traditional inspection systems, as well as how advanced technologies including computed tomography and next generation X ray systems are helping manufacturers identify hidden contaminants to be able to make more confident product release decisions. But first, let me share a little bit more about our guest. Kai Luker leads the development of Flexray's innovative X ray inspection processes and technology and brings more than 20 years of experience across the service, CPG, food and beverage industries with deep expertise in quality assurance formulations and continuous improvement. All right, now, let's hear their discussion.
- [01:34]
B
So we have an interesting discussion lined up for you today on a topic that's of intense interest to many of you in food processing, foreign material contamination, which continues to be one of the more challenging food safety things for plants to manage. And it's consistently been the third leading cause of recalls each year. And there have already been a few very high profile recalls in 2026 due to foreign material contamination. Kai with all the investment that producers are putting into advanced detection equipment, why does foreign material continue to be such a challenge to prevent and detect?
- [02:14]
C
Adrian I think that that that question runs across a lot of different issues as it relates to being in a production environment. I'll take some of the easier ones. First. We still deal with issues that are like bag liners and glove tips and wood and things like that. And as most folks know already, 2025, the largest recall was related to wood. You know, some of these things that we deal with in a food plant are just extremely difficult to detect, especially if we're waiting until the end of the manufacturing line with the metal detector or an X ray. They're not equipped to handle those types of things. I think also we continue to look at foreign material through this, this lens, so to speak, where we have these devices like X rays or metal detectors, or we've invested in the latest greatest X ray technology or some other detection technology, and those are still just signaling devices at the end of the day, they're not there to actually mitigate foreign material in some way. And we also aren't necessarily pushing back upstream and looking at our suppliers. You know, there's, there's a host of things that we have to do as it relates to food safety, for allergen detection, you know, and for pathogen detection. But for foreign material, it's kind of a wait and react. You know, we're really not holding our suppliers internally or externally, you know, to these testing standards or validation or verification. And I think at times we just kind of get caught, you know, in this reactionary place that we continue to be in as it relates to foreign material.
- [03:51]
B
Yeah. And you know, I know that in recent years many food safety teams have invested in more detection equipment such as X ray. But, you know, inevitably foreign material still finds its way into product. So my next question for you is, how does an external inspection partner like Flexray fit into the mix?
- [04:10]
C
Yeah, our standard inspection service is really geared to, you know, incident driven issues with the food manufacturer. That X ray or metal detector or filter magnet, whatever you have in line that is trying to support your food safety tools for foreign material has signaled that there is an event or issue. You've placed product on hold or bracketed that, and now there's a need for a secondary inspection to try to tighten that inspection standard down to smaller foreign material sizes than you were detecting with your inline system so that you can make good decisions around hold release and where that event actually started or ended. So every day at Flexray across our sites around the country, that's what we're doing to support the food industry, is ensuring that we provide exceptional data with good technology so that people make sound decisions around hold and release.
- [05:05]
B
All right, well, thanks for that. And you know, with this investment we're seeing in inline equipment underway across the food industry, are you starting to see more producers simply reinspect product in house and, you know, if so, why do you think that might be the case?
- [05:21]
C
I think the number one case is really around the financial decision making. People have spent a significant amount of money in capex installing a system that they feel should help them execute to a tighter standard around food safety. I think that's really as simple as the decision is for, for most operations folks within a food plant.
- [05:42]
B
Now, why do you think that reinspecting product in house might not be a good approach for pinpointing affected product?
- [05:49]
C
Not to oversimplify the issue, but essentially we're reinspecting that product with the same technology at the Same speeds and the same standards that we did the first time whenever we signaled that we had a potential issue. So with the, without the ability to change those inspection standards, to change the speed, to change the sensitivity levels on the fly, which really takes a lot of effort in order to do with an inline instrument, we're just missing the boat on a deeper inspection dive. And we're just doing the same thing over and over.
- [06:21]
B
And so what are some other implications that food safety leaders should think about when they're deciding, you know, whether to reinspect internally or to leverage a third party party partner like Flexray? You know, are there any cost or resource considerations also?
- [06:36]
C
I think cost implications are always there. You know, we'd like to think that we're making food safety decisions that, and that's, that's the only criteria that we have. But we do really need to make cost considerations as well as it relates to the, the product handling. And from a flex rate perspective, there are some things that don't make sense for a third party to inspect. I mean, the value or the weight of the product, making it prohibitive for shipping, those types of things. So there are things that we don't inspect or don't see very often as it relates to that. But on the food situation side or the food manufacturing side of this equation, rather, the skill set that's inside the plant isn't necessarily geared towards reinspection for foreign material first and foremost. I mean, as a manufacturer, we are geared to make products and do that well. We're not necessarily adept at reinspecting. And in fact, as we've shifted from metal detection to x Ray, 20 years ago, as an example, all of our internal maintenance teams were very adept at adjusting the sensitivity to a metal detector. It was just like any other tool in the food plant. And we, we were very good at maintaining that piece of equipment. But as we've shifted over towards X ray, the way that that system works is a lot different. And we're reliant more so on external vendors and partners to help us do that. And we've lost a little bit of that, you know, that knowledge as it relates to some of the instruments that we're using in house for foreign material detection. So at Flexray, that's what we're doing every single day. That's, in fact, that's all that we're doing is evaluating X ray imaging and imaging quality in order to make a determination of a host of foreign materials within a wide range of food products.
- [08:29]
B
And you know, so when we talk about using a third party. How would you explain to food safety leaders exactly what's different about an inspection in a Flexray facility versus their own inline equipment? You know, what sort of capabilities do you have versus a typical food plant environment?
- [08:47]
C
I'll start with the similarities. We're both using a two dimensional X ray for our base technology as it relates to inspection services. The type of X ray that's being leveraged in a food manufacturing setting is a two dimensional X ray with a linear diode array of some sort. Whether that's single energy or dual energy, or even some of the more modern ones are at time delay integration to produce a very good quality image. And it's meant to handle the things that you need good sensitivity around and good risk assessments around, and also maintain production speeds. Our instruments at Flex Array are more medical based. So even though we're still doing a two dimensional X ray with our legacy inspection systems, it's the same detector or imaging device that's in a heart cath lab. As an example, we're using the same device for an angiogram in order to do our inspection service. And with that comes a significant reduction in speed as well. So the hundreds of feet per minute that we're used to inspecting in a food plant, we're slowing that down to 5ft or less whenever we do an inspection at Flexray.
- [09:59]
B
Interesting. Now, I also have read recently that Flexray has been investing heavily in CT technology, so maybe you could tell our listeners more about how that works and what sort of benefits it gives a manufacturer that's inspecting product with you. And you know where you see the future of that CT technology going?
- [10:20]
C
Yeah, absolutely. I haven't been as excited about CT technology or a new technology that we've introduced as I am about CT technology. That investment's taken me a couple of years to work through and get ready to push to the market. And I probably could do an entire podcast just on CT technology alone. But to simplify, CT technology allows flex Array to actually conduct a fully automated inspection for the first time. We're not reliant on a human inspector evaluating the images at slow speeds. Even though the CT itself is a slow speed instrument. We're running around 20ft per minute. So much slower than a food manufacturing plant, but still a significant improvement for our overall productivity at Flexray. The main advantage that a CT has as it relates to inspection is that we're slicing that product into half millimeter slices and we're evaluating the reconstruction of those images on three planes. We can do an X, a Y and a Z inspection at half millimeter slices recreate all of those images, look for foreign material within each individual slice, and then also look at the adjacent slice data to create volumetric data around the foreign object. So for the first time we can understand the size and orientation of the object within the product matrix. That's huge. But being able to eliminate the layering effects that cause issues in a two dimensional X ray allows us to find things that frankly are just not visible in a two dimensional setting. So we've had a host of projects that we're successful with as it relates to gasket or rubber. There are some issues with wire being difficult to find in, you know, a non homogeneous product because of the difficulty in product layering effects and things like that. And if we strip all of that product layering effect back and just look at a single plane of an image, we can find a foreign object. So whether that's in a frozen entree that has a lot of toppings or inclusions, things like that, or you know, a bulk box of protein like chicken nuggets, where there's a lot of edges and layering that compound the difficulty in a two dimensional inspection, we're essentially just removing all of that. And so we've been successful finding gasket materials down, you know, below the 3 millimeter size standpoint with CT technology. In fact, we have it at every single one of our facilities now, except for one, and many of our facilities even have two of these units. We're sort of excited about the technology, we've invested heavily in it, and it's allowed us a significant improvement in our capacity overall so that we can help customers, whenever they do have an incident, ensure that we get that product turned around and back to supply chain as fast as possible.
- [13:12]
B
That's really neat and it sounds like a very transparent inspection technology, something for sure that would be very helpful for food processors that are experiencing an issue where it's something that's difficult to detect. So I guess, you know, speaking of new technology though, you know, what's your philosophy when it comes to exploring new technologies and adding them to your inspection facilities?
- [13:36]
C
From a flex rate perspective, we try to view foreign material and food safety as it's not a competitive environment. We really want to be here to look at every stage that we can, every piece of technology, whether that's prepackaged foods, that might be microwave based technology, or hyperspectral imaging technology, things like that. We want to help our customers not just whenever they have an incident, but also Understand the overall marketplace and the tools that are available to them. In fact, we partner with one of the largest microwave based technology companies to do sample testing in our facilities. That's for pumpable product. It goes through a system where it's evaluated by a microwave and then has detection rejection systems. That's not something that we can execute from a flex rate perspective. We're more geared to food warehousing finished product. But we want to maintain, you know, that type of opportunity for our customers to understand technology that's out there. And we've partnered at the academic level with a couple of different universities as well to evaluate hyperspectral imaging technology as it continues to advance and improve as well.
- [14:47]
B
Yeah, that's great. Now I think this is something that would be really helpful for our listeners to know. Maybe could walk us through the process of working with an inspection partner like Flexray. So you know, from contamination discovery to product release and you know, what are some of the best practices? What does that look like today and what are some ways you find producers maybe thinking the wrong way about external inspection?
- [15:11]
C
Yeah, absolutely. I'll, I'll take and simplify our approach as it relates to a new customer with a new foreign material and product combination. So we just start with a basic sample testing approach. We'd like to get a piece of the foreign material, hopefully as large as possible, you know, somewhere in the 7 millimeter range in a case of the customer's product. And we want to just begin doing testing to find the smallest thing that we can find, whether that's in the finished case or if we need to take that down to smaller unit levels, bags, cartons, whatever it might be, and what kind of size and sensitivity level that we can get down to at that point in time. We're testing that and side the product zone itself. A lot of times whenever we're doing factory acceptance testing for an inline instrument, where we're challenging those things with a spherical object leading trailing edge, those types of things outside of the product container itself, whenever we're doing testing, we want to create the worst case scenario possible. So a lot of testing is involved up front and we say no to a lot of issues on a daily basis. If we're not comfortable with our imaging quality overall and our sensitivity, then we're not going to create risk for ourselves, for our customers sake. It's not, it's not a good plan of action overall. Now as it relates to a food manufacturer and how they should think about a third party service overall. I think the first thing is just care of the food itself. Do they have quality systems and programs in place to to manage your supply chain as if they are a partner of yours? So Flexray, our written programs essentially are mirrored to what a food manufacturers would be. Now, since we're not handling anything like exposed product, we don't have the same environmental monitoring that might be involved in a food plant. But everything else, from pest control to GMPs and even our audit compliance, we're BRC certified. At FlexRay, we have V status with USDA, all of our sites are FDA registered, those types of things. And it might seem like a basic fundamental requirement, but it is something to ensure that you're doing your due diligence on Whenever you're sending your product out to a third party. You definitely want to make sure that they're going to handle everything the right way, from food safety to food defense to temperature monitoring, whatever that might be.
- [17:43]
B
And so looking ahead, how do you see inspection technology evolving over the next few years?
- [17:49]
C
Technology itself? I'm not sure that I see huge strides coming. I think that one of the biggest ones is already at our doorstep. And the adoption is really the thing that's going to be the next big thing for food manufacturers. And that's in photon counting technology with an inline X ray unit. So essentially it's the same approach from an X ray standpoint. It's still a fan beam X ray. We're sending those photons through the food product to a different detector that can essentially evaluate discerning energy levels as it passes through the food product to aid in the discrimination of foreign materials. Not to get too deep into the science of it, but the short version is it creates a very good image overall, the noise and the overall quality is improved. So most vendors are using their legacy algorithms just with a better image quality overall to improve detection standards. But eventually there's another piece of data that's available there with the photon counting detector to understand, you know, some sensitivity levels, some quality about what's going on within that food product to allow us to begin to use an X ray as something more than just a signaling device. Like we can actually use an X ray as a measuring device, so to speak, and can see the noise in the signal that things that we might not have the sensitivity level set to, you know, this tight of a window because of false reject rates. But we could create a report or a dashboard to know whenever we have noisy windows, so to speak, in our production run so that we're not putting so much product on hold. We're shrinking the brackets for those product hold windows and making cleaner, smaller inventory based decisions whenever we do have an incident. And so photon counting, I think it's at our doorstep already. A lot of vendors are already using that technology. I hope that our listeners explore that further. Overall, from a technology standpoint though, I think it's, I think the biggest win is going to be in using a multi pronged approach. We need to use things like microwave upstream or hyperspectral imaging upstream and then photon counting downstream as it relates to the finished product. And when we couple these things together, we're just building the best defense system that we can perform material overall.
- [20:15]
B
And so what developments at Flexray are you most excited about as you expand technology across your network?
- [20:22]
C
Well, for me, CT technology is exciting. You know, we're the only ones in North America that have CT technology, but it's unlocking that technology further and adding algorithms onto the CT device itself that can continue to open up more windows. So one of the first algorithms, you know, above and beyond just basic form material inspection that we were excited to launch is, it's called segmentation and essentially it can take a tray of glass jars, identify the glass of the container, identify the metal lid of the container, once it's trained, ignore those pieces, inspect a multi pack at one time and only look inside of those containers to discern foreign material. And I thought that something like that would be much further down the road. We're continuing to leverage machine learning and AI based approaches to adding more algorithms as it relates to our CT detection schemes. So it's difficult to create an algorithm to ignore a chub clip as an example in a hamburger log or sausage logs. But that that technology will be ready to launch here before we know it. Metal cans for segmentation is a little bit more difficult than glass, but eventually we'll have some opportunities there. And then there's a host of things in the snack food realm of the food industry that has desiccant packs. Inside of that are oxygen scavengers and scrubbers and that prevents, you know, the opportunity to use an automated foreign materials detection system for the most part. But we can create algorithms that can find, locate, even count those to ensure that we have the right number, ignore that as it relates to foreign material and inspect the rest of the food matrix reform material. So for me personally, I'm most excited about continuing to leverage CT technology. We're really just at the forefront of that at the moment. But there's a lot more opportunity to, you know, provide services for all of our customers.
- [22:29]
B
Well, this is really interesting hearing about all these developments with, you know, flexorace CT technology and what you're doing with photon counting and segmentation and then some of the, you know, algorithmic and AI technology applications. And I think this is really interesting to be able to share this with our listeners so they know the range of technologies that are out there that can help them and then also, as you mentioned, putting things together into a multi pronged approach and how you see that as, you know, part of the wave of the future of inspection technology. So, Kai, I want to thank you for being on the podcast today. It's been a really interesting discussion and hopefully this gives our listeners some good food for thought with how they might approach, you know, doing better at foreign material inspection in their facilities and with a partner, a third party partner like Flexray. So thank you so much.
- [23:19]
C
Thank you, Adrianne. It's always a pleasure joining you.
- [23:21]
B
Absolutely.
- [23:23]
A
Thanks again to Kai Luker for another informative conversation and Flexray for sponsoring today's episode. You can find more information about Flexray's X ray inspection process and technology by visiting their website flexray.com that's flexxray.com you can also access links in the show notes of your podcast player or on the episode page@food-safety.com we hope you enjoyed this special episode of Food Safety Matters and we'll talk to you soon.