3D X-Ray tech for food safety: Biometic showcases AI quality control at Anuga FoodTec 2022

03 May 2022 --- Italian food industry solutions company Biometic is touting its 3D XRay technology for F&B packaging branded Mito, which uses artificial intelligence to analyze and evaluate products for foreign bodies and verify the qualitative characteristics of the products through non-destructive means.

Displayed at the Anuga FoodTec 2022 trade show in Cologne, Germany, last week, Biometic demonstrated how contaminants and other unwanted materials, which often leak into food systems, can be avoided using the Mito system. 

Arianna Giudiceandrea, chief sales officer for Biometic, tells PackagingInsights the technology uses X-Ray that operates like a tomography, as employed in hospitals, except on running lines for various food applications. 

“The main benefits are food safety as it can detect extremely small fragments within a product and ensure food quality by determining the quantity and distribution of ingredients. In a croissant, for example, you can see the exact air bubble contents and the amount of jam and cream inside.” 

This technology is already in use around Italy, improving food safety and optimizing production lines downstream, Giudiceandrea says. 

COVID-19 ups safety focus 
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Giudiceandrea says the Mito technology has become more important than ever as consumers demand more food safety and optimized production processes. 

“It is a technology that differs from what has been on the market so far, and it will open new possibilities for food producers. Initially, the rise in demand since the beginning of the pandemic was a little less than we expected, a lot of producers were scared of making new investments, but this trend is now changing.”Arianna Giudiceandrea, chief sales officer for Biometic.

Mito’s rotating X-ray source performs a 40 m/min belt feed speed, with up to two rotations around a single inspected product. It thus acquires up to 400 internal images per product, exploiting all three dimensions (length, width, and depth) with a scanning resolution of 0.5 mm. The scanned product remains unaltered because the data are acquired through non-destructive analysis, says the company. 

Since the pandemic has begun to subside, industry fear of making new investments has changed, Giudiceandrea continues. 

“Now, a lot of customers want to make new production lines and digitalize their processes, and Mito is the perfect technology to use.” 

Rising price concerns 
As with most companies at Anuga FoodTec 2022, the challenge of rising prices and increased customer demands is causing problems for Biometic.

“The supply chain situation is the biggest challenge at the moment. Delivery on time is a big problem, but Biometic has broad shoulders, so we have a big stock to guarantee delivery to our customers,” explains Giudiceandrea. 

“The price increase of components is also a major challenge but we are a vertically integrated company, which means most of our sensors and electronic components we develop in-house and that means we have flexibility compared to other producers of scanning systems, so we are not so affected like others.” 

“On the technology side, the challenge of perfect quality for products is also increasing every day.” 

By Louis Gore-Langton