In the modern food and beverage industry, quality products and safety are key components in building successful brands. There are a variety of new and developing technologies today that all but eliminate the need for human inspection of products and goods. Because assuring this quality is pivotal in the successful distribution of some goods, like meats, incredibly accurate technologies, like X-ray machines, may be employed to get more accurate results.

But how safe are these machines in the inspection of raw foods like meat? How does the radiation used in X-ray inspections affect the quality and safety of products? The truth of the matter is: it doesn’t.

Evidence in the Numbers

In a 1997 study by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was discovered that food radiation exposure levels up to 10,000 sievert (Sv) had zero effects on the nutritional value or food safety of tested samples; sievert being the common unit for measuring radiation dose. This test amount is five million times the amount of radiation typical X-ray equipment emits in a year (10000000000 microsieverts (μSv) compared to 2000 μSv).

Dosage levels used in X-ray inspection machines are less than one ten millionth of levels used in the WHO’s study. Food traveling through X-ray inspection machines typically spends less than one second under X-ray radiation, being exposed to only 1.5 μSv; this is less radiation than the natural radiation in a jar of mussels. This radiation is so low, that organic foods passing through an X-ray inspection system retain their ‘organic’ status.

Following X-ray inspection, there are no changes to nutrition, texture or flavor quality; simply put, the food is just as healthy as prior to inspection. In preventing outside contaminants from spoiling your meat products and harming your brand, there are very few options more effective that X-ray inspection machines, which can also analyze chemical lean (CL) values within a 1CL margin of error, and up to 76 meters of product per minute (or 160 tones / hour).

Food for Thought

To put X-ray food inspection into perspective, it is helpful to understand that the radiation used in food and meat processing is no more dangerous than chest or dental X-rays. The radiation used in food inspection X-rays should not be compared to the radioactive substances that people immediately relate with the word ‘radiation,’ such as uranium. The difference being that radioactive substances like uranium continuously emit radiation through alpha particles, beta particles and gamma rays. These substances cannot be halted, or ‘shut off,’ like industrial X-ray inspection equipment.

Naturally occurring X-ray waves are just one component of ‘background radiation,’ the constant radiation humans are exposed to every day just by being on this planet. This radiation comes from a wide variety of places, categorized into four major sources:

• Radon gas; the greatest source of natural radiation. It commonly emits from uranium-containing surfaces, rocks and soil (particularly granite).
• Cosmic radiation; mostly filtered by the Earth’s atmosphere, cosmic radiation, which falls onto Earth from space, comes in contact with all living things.
• Medical radiation; artificial background radiation resulting from dental, chest and medical X-rays
• Internal radiation; incredibly fine radiation, such as radioactive material in dust. When inhaled, some of these particles’ radiation reaches internal organs.

Being able to cut power instantly from industrial X-ray machines by switching off its electrical supply is part of what makes them so safe for human operation.

Every year, the average human being is exposed to around 2,400 μSv of naturally occurring radiation; this is noticeably more than the yearly radiation emitted from X-ray food inspection equipment currently used in the industry, which is estimated to be around 2,000 μSv. X-ray units in the food inspection industry emit less than one microsievert of radiation per hour.

Putting this into perspective, frequent flyers and airline personnel are exposed to hundreds or even thousands more microsievert each year, due to higher radiation presence at higher altitudes. The Canadian and US regulated maximum leakage level for X-ray inspection machines is 5 μSv per hour. 

Safety in Design

Many of today’s X-ray inspection machines, like those built by Eagle PI, come fully equipped with numerous emergency and safety precaution features, such as tunnel (louvers) abd curtains which retain emissions, lockable power isolators, emergency stops and safety interlock designs. These features ensure preventative safety of machine operators as well as exceptional inspection capability. Additionally, today’s automated production lines and manufacturing systems further limit the physical interaction between X-ray inspection machines and human operators.

Almost all modern X-ray inspection machines are lined or fully built with stainless steel, through which X-ray radiation cannot pass; this makes the design of X-ray machines so important, as they can control emissions and enclose X-ray radiation within themselves.

Why it’s Used with Food and Raw Goods

X-ray inspection technology is especially effective in the quality and safety inspection of food due to the technology’s outstanding ability to detect any range of foreign bodies in a product, from metal to glass, and bone to high density plastc and rubber. Modern machines can also perform in-line quality standard operations, counting components and identifying product mass (check-weighing), as well as fill levels, cap detection, missing products and even inner seal integrity.

The efficiency and effectiveness with which X-ray inspection systems deliver high quality results have made these machines the industry-preferred tools for product safety and quality inspection. More reliable and accurate than human means of inspection and with no negative effects on products, X-ray inspection technologies are being embraced by many industry professionals.

To learn more about the safety of today’s X-ray inspection machines, or how your business could benefit from the service these machines provide, contact us today!