French packer uses X-rays to monitor scallops

Packopale, based at Boulogne-sur-Mer, packs up to 8,000t of frozen seafood annually. Frozen scallops, which account for about one third of its production, are caught, shelled, eviscerated and washed in Canada or Argentina, then frozen for their transatlantic journey. By the time they arrive at Packopale (via a refrigerated tunnel from Norfrigo, an associated firm next door) they will be largely free of shell fragments and of grit.

The use of an Ishida IX-GA-4075 X-ray inspection system has enabled the company to provide additional assurances to its customers on top of the bacteriological monitoring it also uses. In addition to grit and shell, it can detect at very low levels, much rarer contaminants such as steel, aluminium, tin, glass, stones, hard rubber, plastic and bone.

The use of special algorithms, allows operators to 'train' the X-ray inspection system for greater detection sensitivity to specific, known contaminants.

Contact: Ishida Europe​