Hyperspectral imaging: the stuff of science coming to an automated food line near you Vision can be deployed in a number of different ways on a food processing line to tell if food is safe to eat and meets the quality standards demanded by retailers. Now the kind of hyperspectral technology that NASA has used to study planets and plant life is being applied
Today’s hyperspectral vision systems are programmed to have a level of impartiality that human eyes just don’t have.
to the food that ends up on household plates.
Workforce fatigue and human error has meant that on super-fast packing lines, even visible defects, such as bruising and blemishes, can pass even the most observant human inspectors by. Today’s hyperspectral vision systems are programmed to have a level of impartiality that human eyes just don’t
Historically, quality assurance in
have.
For UK-based automation specialist
packhouses relied extensively on human
With many end-of-line packing stations
Brillopak, the emergence of more
intervention - someone scanning
now automated and processing in
affordable hyperspectral imaging is
conveyors as packs headed towards the
excess of 100 packs of produce a
enabling food packing plants to leverage
case loading operation and spotting and
minute, incorporating vision is becoming
sci-fi kit and apply to daily operations.
removing defective or damaged product.
increasingly commonplace. To help
In addition to offering a critical quality
However, there are obvious limitations
minimise the risk of an ‘out-of-spec’
control advantage, it helps packhouses
to visual screening. Most notably, the
product heading out of the warehouse
previously reliant on EU migrant workers
human eye lacks Superman’s x-ray
doors and onto retailer’s shelves,
and experiencing staffing pressures to
powers, while conventional cameras
Brillopak has begun to integrate
now automate their quality inspection
only see what is in the visible light
hyperspectral imaging as an option onto
process.
spectrum.
its automated case loading systems,
66 FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk
