In most westernised economies, food processors document all potential product risks, including naturally occurring hazards. To facilitate this automated reporting, Fortress Technology’s metal detectors offer secure, flexible logging of data capture, as well as a range of Industry 4:0 solutions to support track and trace.
From a Quality Assurance perspective, this level of surveillance provides valuable peace of mind, especially for food processors sourcing ingredients from multiple suppliers. And from an operational viewpoint, production efficiency within factories is enhanced.
Contact Reporter is a robust automated record keeper developed by Fortress to help processors keep track of and record logs for all metal detector events, such as rejects, faults, quality performance verifications and more. Available on all Fortress digital Stealth and Interceptor metal detectors, and compliant with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety management systems and principles, each event is automatically time stamped. The data output provides a fully traceable and auditable QA report documenting what happened and when.
As food legislation suggests, traceability is, and will continue to be, a key priority. In the wake of the pandemic, food safety concerns will be further heightened, likely resulting in greater regulatory pressure. Digitising processes that have largely been paper based is a fundamental step change in building sturdier suppler chains.
In many European countries, BRC Global Standards drive the adoption of food and beverage track-and-trace technologies. Deployment of these digital solutions will be even more imperative for building supply chain resilience. Being able to zoom in on production bottlenecks, reconfigure supply chains and swiftly identify and respond to issues with agility can be expedited.
Checking that metal detection systems are failsafe forms part of this agenda. Frequently, data from a production line is fed back to a common collection system. However, it is critical to ensure the data that being sent is readable and compatible by whatever the plant is using. Here, food processors can benefit from having equipment adapted to common OPC standards. Doing so means that they can then collect and export data, which can be used to inform future and sensible production decisions.
Included as standard on all Stealth and Interceptor metal detectors, Contact Reporter Software from Fortress uses a powerful back-end SQL database to monitor activity and generate reports in either PDF or Excel format. Auditor-approved, reports can be selected for a specific production line and/or time period. For record keeping, event and performance information is stored securely for a minimum of 10 years, with the option to extend storage capacity to 20+ years. For simplicity and ease of use, data can be transferred from the detector to a centralised computer via USB or an optional secure Ethernet connection.
