16May2011

Haliburton Adds State-of-the-Art Food Safety Equipment

Haliburton International Foods has installed Buhler Sortex equipment in its production facilities. It’s one of several steps the Ontario, Calif.-based developer, producer and marketer of frozen vegetables has taken to help ensure food safety.

The company has gone well beyond HACCP, requiring that all its raw materials and finished products to undergo a series of chemical and microbiological tests. It is using a DNA-based testing system that assures its products are free of Listeria, e-coli and salmonella.

Defect and foreign material detection and elimination are key elements of any product quality and food safety system. Metal detectors and most recently X-ray systems do a good job of eliminating many foreign materials, but do little for finding color or size defects and contamination from plastic, wood, rock and cardboard.

Buhler’s Sortex E Optical Sorter with integrated SmartEject™ system takes defect detection and elimination to the next level. By combining enhanced InGaAs technology, bichromatic cameras and shape recognition, the Sortex E can detect the subtlest product defect and foreign material. The first Sortex E unit was installed on Haliburton’s IQF roasted vegetable blending and packaging line in April. Starting in May, in addition to X-ray inspection of all sealed bags, the company will offer optical sorting of all IQF vegetable blends.