METTLER TOLEDO Product Inspection division has provided Pukka Pies, of Leicester, UK, with three high performance X-ray systems, each designed to provide the very highest levels of contaminant detection.

A privately owned family business, producing some fifty million pies and pasties annually from the most modern pie production facility in Europe, Pukka Pies operates in stringently hygienic conditions. The company has its own butchery, only uses young, lean bullock beef sourced from EC approved plants, audits its own suppliers - including site visits where appropriate - and has a policy of not using any genetically-modified ingredients. All Pukka ingredients are inspected against specification on delivery and each supplier’s performance is monitored.

Against this stringent backdrop of ensuring that only ingredients of the very highest quality go into Pukka Pies – and with a reputation for placing Food Safety as its highest priority - Pukka Pies required an X-ray solution that would not simply deliver outstanding levels of contaminant detection, but would eliminate the number of false rejects, even when scanning products in metallic foil trays, the preferred housing method used by the pies and pasties specialist.

Greater accuracy
Seeking to objectively find the best possible detection solution, Pukka Pies invited METTLER TOLEDO Product Inspection to provide equipment for live factory trials against a leading competitor’s products.  During those trials, METTLER TOLEDO’s X-ray technologies clearly demonstrated their ability to deliver a great level of accuracy, ease of use, quality of reject engineering, software, library function - as a direct consequence - METTLER TOLEDO Product Inspection received an order for three of their T10 XP stand-alone X-ray inspection units with reject systems for installation at Pukka Pies’ Leicester factory.

The new T10 XP X-ray inspection systems installed by METTLER TOLEDO Product Inspection have been used to replace older ‘ferrous and foil’ metal detectors that were previously in place at the Pukka site.

Excellent results
Commented Pukka Pies Senior Technical Manager, Brigitte Coignec, “At Pukka Pies, our key objective is to ensure nothing less than the highest levels of product safety and validation. As our products are frequently housed in aluminium trays, classic metal detection technologies do not always provide the best way forward. Initially validating METTLER TOLEDO’s technologies on site – and at their premises – we found the company’s equipment to provide excellent results across our wide range of food products which include pies in different styles and sizes, as well as pasties and sausage rolls.

“METTLER TOLEDO Production Inspection,” she continued, “has provided Pukka Pies with exceptional capability in identifying and rejecting foreign bodies and provided us with exceptional peace-of-mind in terms of product safety. The equipment is also extremely user friendly – a feature we consider to be just as important as the operating parameters of a particular machine or technology.”

Higher detection capabilities
Capable of detecting contaminants down to as little as 1mm in size, the METTLER TOLEDO Product Inspection division models have provided Pukka Pies with measurably higher levels of accurate detection, including the ability to reject product containing miniscule bone fragments. Indeed, as a result of experiencing the capabilities of METTLER TOLEDO Product Inspection’s machines, the Leicester pie-maker is currently considering the benefits of switching to a 100% X-ray-based detection solution.

About the T10 XP range
Highly efficient, low maintenance and simple to operate, METTLER TOLEDO’s ‘Safeline’ range of T10 XP X-ray inspection systems offer maximum sensitivity and accuracy, with manufacture to IP65 standards to meet stringent food industry hygiene requirements.

Providing the reliable monitoring of products and packaging attributes, T10 models offer the detection of contaminants such as metal, glass, stone and plastic. Easy-to-understand operating procedures make the detection process simple and straightforward, whilst a user-friendly operator control centre, with 15” touch screen display, provides a visual reference using images or diagnostics data.

Automatic adaptive inspection ensures optimum sensitivity throughout production. The T10 XP’s stainless steel housings easily fit into the food production line, whilst optional IP69K moisture protection ensures the capability to withstand the harshest of cleaning regimes.