As we continue to learn more about our pet’s health, we realise that precisely what we feed them does matter. Our pets’ food is just as essential to their good health as our food is to us. Food safety for our pets, therefore, is of great concern.
As in many other industries, technology is changing how we think about food safety practices and quality control. And machine vision systems (as well as other technologies) are leading the charge in this revolution.
What is Machine Vision?
Machine vision describes the methods and technology that provides imaging-based automatic analysis and inspection, especially in industry.
Machine Vision systems such as those from Industrial Vision capture visual information from the surrounding environment, process these images, and prepares the resulting data for use in different applications.
How do Machine Vision Systems Help Keep Pet Food Safe?
There are several ways in which these technologies help ensure the safety of your pet’s food. Some of the most significant ways include:
Traceability
Regarding our pets’ food, the total traceability of the ingredients from their raw material to the final processing is vital. Machine Vision systems scan the food and verify that each item matches the exact standards set by the relevant organizations through continuous monitoring.
These systems track the raw materials, the products, and the packaging throughout the production process to ensure the highest levels of safety and quality. This level of monitoring is nearly impossible to achieve without the level of precision that Machine Vision brings.
Safety Inspection
Traditional inspection processes mainly relied on humans checking for consistency, quality, and safety. Not only is this expensive and subjective, but it also opens the process up to an unacceptable level of error in our pets’ health.
Machine Vision systems work without human intervention and rely on software and camera to check the products. These systems can identify and alert the manufacturer to foreign material infiltrating the pet food. Contaminated food is weeded out, and cross-contamination that may cause allergies or reactions is easily identified. The chances for error are almost negligible, and the food that reaches your pet is verifiably safe.
Packaging
Packaging defects are one of the leading causes of contamination, devaluation, and degradation of pet food products. Companies such as Industrial Vision have packaging and label fully automated inspection machines. These systems are excellent at spotting packaging flaws, surface contamination, wrong labels or label defects, sell-by dates, and providing quality inspection and auto-reject of poor products.
Machine Vision systems also prevent spoiling from improperly sealed containers and packages. If any boxes are not sealed properly, the system identifies the breach. They also confirm the presence of anti-tamper seals and foil covers and that they are correctly attached to all the necessary products.
By individually inspecting the packaging of each product, these technologies play an essential role in ensuring that only the best, high-quality, safe-to-eat, properly packaged products get to your pet.
