Ready to Eat Food Inspection

Ready-to-eat (RTE) meals, whether refrigerated, frozen, or shelf-stable, must meet the highest standards for quality, safety, and consistency.

As the market for RTE foods continues to expand, so do consumer expectations and regulatory requirements. For manufacturers, this means there’s no room for error.

How is Metal Detection Used in the Ready to Eat Food Industry?

Metal detection is most commonly applied after packaging in the ready-to-eat food industry, where it serves as a critical final checkpoint for physical contaminants. Because ready meals are often complex combinations of proteins, sides, and sauces, foreign material contamination is more likely to occur during mixing, filling, or sealing processes.

Metal detectors are necessary to inspect for:

• Shards of metal from mixers, cutters, or sorters
• Rubber or plastics from sorting and sealing processes
• Metal fragments or shavings from bearings, machinery, or mechanical components
• Pieces of glass from broken lightbulbs
• Metal hardware, like nuts or bolts, falling into production areas as a result of vibrations or maintenance

CASSEL Inspection’s conveyor-style metal detectors are ideal for inspecting fully packaged RTE items, including contaminant detection for microwaveable meals, chilled entrees, and individual portions.

Frozen or dry products are typically easier to inspect with metal detectors because they produce less signal interference. To improve accuracy and reduce product waste, it’s generally recommended to inspect individual meals rather than bulk packages. Smaller package sizes increase detection precision and reduce the need for rework if a contaminant is found.

Recommended Equipment:

• METAL SHARK BD with conveyor
• Shark MultiSense

Looking for contaminants in finished packages? A conveyor belt inspection machine might be a perfect choice.

Tray Seal Inspection

X-ray inspection machines with tray seal detection capabilities can verify whether sealing equipment has properly closed meal trays, whether they are made from metalized film, aluminum films, or clear plastic films. In some cases, air bubbles or incomplete sealing during the heat-sealing process can compromise packaging integrity. If trays are not sealed correctly, oxygen exchange can occur, leading to oxidation, food spoilage, and shortened product shelf life—a critical risk for chilled or refrigerated ready meals.

By integrating metal detection with X-ray inspection including tray seal detection capabilities, manufacturers gain an extra layer of protection, which ensures RTE meals remain safe, fresh, and consistent until they reach the consumer.

Final Package X-ray Inspection

X-ray inspection machines provide added quality assurance to manufacturers who may also be using metal detection in the production line.

By the time a RTE meal is sealed and ready for distribution, packaging may include multiple compartments, foil coverings, or complex materials that limit metal detection sensitivity. Using X-ray inspection, or a combination of metal detection and X-ray inspection, delivers greater sensitivity, reduces product waste, and simplifies rejection if a contaminant is detected.

Ready meal facilities commonly use CASSEL Inspection’s XD28 or XD38 conveyor-style X-ray systems, depending on the size and configuration of the packaged meals. The XD28 is especially well-suited for compact production lines inspecting standard meal trays, offering high performance in a space-saving footprint.

Confirm Product Packaging

In addition to detecting and removing contaminated products, X-ray inspection is also used in the RTE industry to confirm product packaging consistency.

Customized programming on X-ray inspection machines enables food manufacturers to identify variations within a package, verify item counts, indicate damaged or broken products, and detect unfilled or underfilled products.