The Foil Packaging Metal Detection Problem: How to Keep Food Safe

Food companies want their products to stay fresh and taste great. That’s why many use aluminium foil packaging—it’s one of the best ways to protect food from air and moisture. But this creates a major safety headache. How do you check for tiny metal contaminants inside a package that’s already made of metal? Standard metal detectors can't tell the difference between the foil wrapper and a dangerous metal fragment, leading to a tough choice: risk safety or switch to less effective packaging.

The Challenge: When Packaging Becomes a Problem

A food producer making a variety of popular products, from curry pastes to powdered spices and condiments, faced this exact problem. They needed to guarantee their products were safe without giving up the high-quality foil packaging that kept them fresh. Regular metal detectors weren’t an option. They would either stop the line constantly for false alarms or, even worse, fail to catch a real piece of metal.

The Solution: A Smarter Metal Detector

The company turned to the Scanline Aluminium Foil Metal Detector, a machine built specifically for this challenge. Unlike standard models, this metal detector is smart enough to ignore the aluminium packaging and focus only on what’s inside. It’s designed to spot unwanted metal contaminants while letting safe products pass through without interruption. To prove it worked, a test was set up using the company's actual products. A range of tiny metal contaminants—bits of wire, shavings, and other fragments simulating real-world hazards—were hidden inside the sealed foil packages.
 

The Results: Safety and Performance

The results were clear and decisive. The Scanline Aluminium Foil Metal Detector found every single contaminant hidden in every product.
The metal detector demonstrated impressive power, detecting ferrous metal pieces as small as 1.5mm and stainless-steel pieces down to 2.5mm. Most importantly, the metal detector correctly ignored loose pieces of aluminum, proving it won't raise false alarms on the packaging itself. This is the key to efficient and reliable production.
 

Conclusion: Setting a New Standard in Food Safety

This test proves that food manufacturers no longer have to compromise. With the right technology, it’s possible to use the best packaging for your product while ensuring it meets the highest safety standards. The Scanline Aluminium Foil Metal Detector provides the peace of mind that your products are safe, protecting your customers and your brand.

Here is some test report data and a video of the Aluminum Foil Metal Detector testing process:


Photos of test samples of metal contaminants