Product inspection of confectionery: For complete, flawless specialities free of foreign bodies
A look at the numbers reveals: confectionery is our daily bread in Europe. Each year sales of chocolate, sweets, biscuits and ice cream account for more than 90 billion euros. By comparison: that’s more than sales of coffee and tea combined (80 billion euros). For chocolate alone, consumption reaches up to 10 kilograms per person per year. That’s just over one chocolate bar or two Oreo biscuits per day. In some countries, if all the confectionery is added together, the consumption per person tops even the 30 kilogram mark. Germany exports the most confectionery – mainly because in a European comparison the price of goods is lowest.
The market is not yet saturated: an annual sales growth of 1.6% is forecast. A market volume of almost 100 million euros is predicted for Europe in 2023. That’s why every detail counts when it comes to the product inspection of confectionery. If foreign bodies get into the products, it will mean carrying out an expensive food recall campaign. According to a study by insurer Allianz, in Europe this costs 8 million euros on average. Use our inspection solutions for the quality assurance of confectionery to protect yourself against this risk.
On this page you will find more information about:
- Webinar: Product inspection confectionery
- E-Paper: Product inspection of confectionery
- Member of the European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group
- Challenges in the product inspection of confectionery
- The advantages of our checkweighers in the product inspection of confectionery
- The advantages of our X-ray scanners in the product inspection of confectionery
Webinar: Product inspection confectionery
Our free webinar tells you what inspection options X-ray scanners and checkweighers from Wipotec can provide and where you can ideally use the solutions in your production line. We deal with common types of packaging and confectionery formats: packaged goods in bags, individually packaged bars, as well as chocolates in boxes.
Our experts will show you in a 30-minute webinar, delivered in English, how you can ensure 100% quality of your products using modular X-ray scanners and high-precision checkweighers.
Presenters:
Joachim Ott, Business Development Manager Product Inspection
Sascha Wenz, Product Manager Checkweighers
E-Paper: Product inspection of confectionery
In our e-paper “Maximum safety in the production of confectionery”, you will discover the options we can offer you for achieving 100% quality of your goods with our checkweighers, X-ray scanners and our vision inspection. You will also see where the critical control points (CCP) are and what the perfect solution for your production line looks like if you want to achieve complete safety and efficiency.
Member of the European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group
Consumer confidence is critical for confectionery. For this reason, there are strict standards for food safety that must be adhered to. For example, the EU Packaging Directive, the HACCP concept (risk analysis and critical control points), the IFS (International Food Standard), the BRC (Global Standard for Food Safety of the British Retail Consortium), the FDA, the GFSI certification (Global Food Safety Initiative) and others.
As a member of the European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group (EHEDG), we are particularly committed and experienced when it comes to the production and packaging of food. We are happy to advise you on all matters regarding standards in the food industry and product inspection for the quality assurance of confectionery.
We specialise in the product inspection of confectionery. Checkweighing, foreign body detection in confectionery, completeness and level checking and more: with us you get all the solutions from a single source and safeguard yourself in matters of consumer protection, packaging directives, checking standards, environmental protection, increased efficiency and prevention of damage to your image.
Challenges in the product inspection of confectionery
- The solutions at a glance
Your confectionery has to be delivered complete, flawless and free of foreign bodies and must comply with all packaging directives. There are a number of challenges to overcome to ensure this. Find out here how our X-ray inspection, our vision inspection and our checkweighers can help you achieve this.
- X-ray inspection
So that all confectionery is complete, intact and in the right place, we have developed the X-ray scanners of the SC series for you. They perform the completeness check, breakage check, mass determination and foreign body detection. If a chocolate bar is broken, a chocolate is missing, there isn’t enough cream between the biscuits, a filling is unevenly distributed or there’s a foreign body in the product, then our solutions detect this and eject the faulty goods. Even with metallised packaging, our X-ray scanners work reliably and precisely.
- Vision inspection
A complete product inspection of confectionery also includes the checking of barcodes, texts, such as sell by date and contents, as well as labels. It is also necessary to ensure that the seal is intact. Our compact solution for this: the SC-V X-ray scanner with integrated vision inspection.
- Checkweighing
To achieve the best possible profit with your products, it is important to prevent overfilling and underfilling. This is the only way to prevent loss of image and to work cost-efficiently. Our checkweighers of the E-M-A series. will make sure for you. They weigh all types of packaging accurately and reliably. They also help you to comply with the European Packaging Directive. Our tip: For lightweight products and high production speeds, the HC-A checkweigher is absolutely ideal.
2D Codes: Reinventing the labeling of confectionery
The marking of your products is one of our specialties here at Wipotec. In addition to the optical inspection of labels and imprints, our TQS solutions also take care of their application at the end of the line, so that you can even integrate dynamic data. From the mandatory best-before dates in text form to future-oriented variable QR codes that combine numerous advantages in a minimum of space:
- So Make space on your confectionery packaging! A 2D code can be scanned reliably from a size of just a few millimetres and encode much more content than the familiar barcode. This guarantees you the greatest possible flexibility when designing your layouts.
- The right code provides each target group with the right information. Batch identification for better traceability in the warehouse and supply chain and at the same time an interactive link to a coupon booklet that generates interest and strengthens customer loyalty.
- This is one of the great advantages - each code with digital link can forward directly to the Internet. Creativity therefore has no limits. You can tell the story of your brand or transparently show where the raw materials from exactly this batch come from: from the cocoa bean to the finished chocolate.
- Think of a 2D code as an additional communication channel in retail that enables completely new forms of interaction. Do your products contain nuts? Integrate specific warnings for people with allergies! You can combine a digital list of ingredients with recipe ideas that vary by season.
Wipotec Chocolates: This is how 2D codes work!
What does the practical use look like? Here you can see a QR code according to the GS1 Digital Link Standard, as it could also be found on the packaging of your confectionery. Using the camera on your smartphone, you can scan it and land on the corresponding product page, which we have set up for illustration purposes. Alternatively, you can use the following direct link:
TQS for quality assurance of confectionery
TQS is our Traceable Quality System, the tailor-made turnkey solution for your production. Thanks to the modular design, our systems are suitable for a wide range of packaging formats, from pouches and thermoformed packs to cartons. Coding and inspection, weighing and rejection - all from a single source and under a central control system. Eliminate the time-consuming process of setting up separate components and rely on our integrated approach instead. All you need is an easy-to-use display for article and layout changeovers, one contact person for enquiries and one system for all marking and inspection tasks.
The advantages of our checkweighers in the product inspection of confectionery
- Wipotec EMFR weigh cells permit throughputs of up to 650 pcs/min
- Demand-oriented modularity for tailor-made applications
- Exact filling results for reducing the TCO
- Easy, user-friendly operation
- GMP conformity and hygienic design
If you need a highly compact inspection solution, we can also supply you with combination devices. The SC-W. for example. It combines our high-precision checkweigher with the modular X-ray scanner. The HC-M-MDi Checkweigher additionally offers an integrated metal detector on the smallest footprint. For the heavy-duty and secondary packaging sector, the HC-M-SL is an excellent solution. Simply take a look around or let us advise you.
The advantages of our X-ray scanners in the product inspection of confectionery
- Modularity permits fast, flexible solution development and integration
- Broad standard portfolio from entry-level scanners to high-performance combined devices
- High-resolution HD-TDI camera detector technology in compact designs
- Optimal application implementation via intelligent software features
- Conformity to standards such as HACCP, BRC or IFS and others
- 16-bit camera technology
- Camera detectors provide multi-resolution above a resolution of 102 µm
- Inspection speeds up to 2 m/s