Mekitec bakes up x-ray imaging machine for growing company
City Baking Corporation purchased and installed a Midmeki X-ray imaging system to stay within the scope of the FDA’s HAACP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points) food safety guidelines.
The 900mm (35.4 inch) conveyor and 400mm x 200mm (15.75 inch x 7.87 inch) detection area accommodate the baker’s product line, ensuring no goods leave the facility uninspected.
Midmeki can operate at conveyor speeds near 2 meters (6.5 feet) per second, ensuring a rapid rate during peak order periods.
Jovanna Rey, inside sales coordinator at the bakery, said it faced two significant challenges with its old metal detection system.
“Our metal detector worked well for individual, plastic-wrapped items, but some of our larger and multi-piece catering items and loaf cakes were too big to send through the metal detector,” she said.
“We considered purchasing a larger metal detection unit, but that posed another challenge. We use aluminum foil packaging on several of our products. In turn, we determined that the purchase of a larger metal detection unit would not fully solve our problem.”
At City Baking, baked goods such as brownies and loaf cakes are mechanically cut into bars after they come out of the oven on aluminum trays.
Barry Blaine, who co-opened the bakery, said there’s always a risk that the cutting machine will shave off a fragment of aluminum before products are packaged.
“Customers like Aramark, Compass, and Sodexo equate to a significant percentage of our sales. If one of them were to find an aluminum shaving in our products, the risk losing their business would be very serious to ours,” he said.
