We support pet food manufacturers with advanced quality inspection solutions that perform foreign body contamination detection, fill level control, weight and mass control, label inspection, and integrity checks.
At METTLER TOLEDO, we believe pets deserve food prepared to the same standards as we expect for our own food. Our comprehensive product inspection solutions for pet food manufacturers help deliver just that. In addition to helping you produce the best quality products, our systems help pet food manufacturers address the following challenges:
We specialize in supplying intelligent quality control solutions which support pet food manufacturers in delivering the best quality products to pets and their owners. Our systems make it easier to demonstrate due diligence and meet regulatory pet food compliance requirements. The advanced software features of our product inspection systems help to streamline testing and auditing processes, easing the transition towards sustainable growth.
Our solutions for product inspection in the pet food industry perform quality control checks on a variety of pet food products, including wet, dry and frozen food, supplements, snacks and treats. These solutions can handle all common packaging materials and shapes, including cans, foil trays, pouches, bags, folding cartons, chubs, and everything in between.
Our product inspection solutions in the pet food industry include metal detection and x-ray inspection systems for foreign body detection, checkweighing for weight and fill level control as well as completeness checks, and vision inspection systems for packaging and label integrity checks including verifying that sealing surfaces are free from debris.
The versatility of these product inspection systems means they are built to integrate into your current pet food production process for automated inline inspection, and can also be placed at the end of the line as a final quality checkpoint. We offer combination systems to help you make efficient use of available production line space.
We work with multiple pet food manufacturers to implement product inspection programs – you can read more about our work in our case studies with Pro Pet and Earth Animal. Whatever quality control challenges you face in the pet food manufacturing industry, our solutions can help.
Metal Detection | X-ray Inspection | Checkweighing | Vision Inspection | Combination Systems |
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Combination inspection systems for pet food |
Foreign body contamination found in your product can do serious damage to your brand and could even harm a customer’s pet, which can impact your reputation, losing customers and profits. This type of physical contamination occurs when fragments of metal, glass, plastic, or other materials are introduced during the production process. This can be through contaminated raw materials, broken or damaged equipment, or accidental introduction of contaminants by employees. With x-ray inspection and metal detection technology you can quickly identify and remove contaminated products from the production line for improved product safety and quality.
Filling errors on the production line can result in non-compliance with weights and measures regulations – and all the fines and reputation damage that entails – or it can result in unnecessary product giveaway which reduces profits. Product inspection systems such as inline checkweighers can monitor fill-levels and adjust fill-heads automatically, preventing product waste and reducing potential rework.
Making certain that pet food packages leave with all the necessary components present before being shipped to retailers is a big part of avoiding consumer complaints and returns. Checkweighing, vision inspection and x-ray inspection have options to verify product completeness – from weighing the product for accurate filling to inspecting product for filling to verifying label correctness - each system can help you verify the package and its contents is complete. Thanks to advanced product handling options, these checks can be accomplished at high speeds, mitigating the impact on production efficiency.
With so many varieties of pet food being produced in a single location, and with customers who want to provide their pets with the best possible nutrition, proper labeling is critical. Label-related defects and errors are a common and easily preventable source of consumer complaints and product recalls. Integrating vision inspection machines into your production process to check for correct, present, and undamaged labels on each product can help prevent products with unsatisfactory or incorrect labels from entering the marketplace. By verifying critical label data and quality, vision inspection systems minimize the risk of mislabeling, supporting industry guidelines and protecting your brand. We offer a wide range of solutions that perform label quality checks on both oriented and unoriented products.
Our key benefits:
Find out more in our latest service brochure linked below.
Pet food checkweighers offer precise weight measurement of pet food and pet food packaging. Checkweighers from METTLER TOLEDO provide feedback to filling machines, enabling real-time adjustments to correct over-filling and under-filling errors. Their hygienic design stands up to the harsh cleaning routines required in wet pet food production environments, and the tool-less disassembly and reassembly makes cleaning and maintenance faster.
Pet food manufacturers use industrial metal detectors for pet food to detect ferrous, non-ferrous, and stainless-steel metal contaminants in pet food products before they leave the factory. In a wet pet food production scenario, the food is usually pumped through pipes or run on conveyors, while dry food production will often involve vertical applications.
Metal contaminants can enter pet food during production through broken machinery, accidental introduction by employees, or via raw materials from suppliers. Preventing metal-contaminated pet food from reaching store shelves reduces the risk of unsafe products being ingested by pets. METTLER TOLEDO metal detection systems are capable of performing inspections in vertical and pipeline applications as well as conveyorized systems, allowing manufacturers to place them where they are most effective.
X-ray inspection is used for foreign body contamination detection in pet food, and is also used to perform completeness checks of packages. X-ray systems for pet food can detect and reject contaminants such as plastic, glass, bone, rubber, metal and stones, and can be placed at the critical control points along all areas of the production line.
Physical contamination detection in pet food can be achieved by utilizing metal detection systems to identify metal contaminants at the start of production, in-processing and end of line. X-ray inspection systems also detect metal, as well plastic, glass, rubber, stone, minerals, or bone. The choice between metal detection or x-ray can be down to a number of factors, including budget and the likely types of contamination as identified in the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) audit.
You can read more about this in our Metal Detection, X-ray or Both Guide.
The best method for avoiding labeling issues on pet food products – including mislabeling, poorly-applied labeling or poorly printed labels – is to implement vision inspection processes to visually inspect package labels for accurate content and acceptable quality. Installing a machine vision system on the production line can be one of the most efficient ways to inspect product labels. Vision inspection systems for pet food perform automated label content and quality checks on every package as it travels along the production line, identifying packages with labels that fail to fit your quality control standards. Implementing this kind of process can help to keep manufacturers compliant with pet food labeling regulations and guidelines, by automatically removing any products that have missing or incomplete information on the label.
Governments do regulate the production of pet food, covering (in general) accurate labeling, advertising claims, the use of additives and accurate net weight display. In the United States and Canada, the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) publishes guidance for pet food packaging and production, while in the European Union, guidance is provided by FEDIAF, the European Pet Food Industry.
The AAFCO guidelines provide a standardization of the display of nutritional information, ingredient statements and instructions for storage and handling. Visit the AAFCO website for more information.