Metal Detectable Plastic Buckets

Gough Engineering has manufactured material handling equipment for the foods industry for over seventy years and with the increasing levels of hygienic regulations, food processors need to take every precaution available to ensure product integrity.

Tackling plastic contamination in the Food and Beverage Industry

The highly regulated food and beverage market is met with stringent international standards to adhere to, with catastrophic consequences for non-compliance with food safety law such as:

• Expensive product recall
• Negative publicity
• A lack of consumer confidence in the product and brand

As the plastic buckets used in elevators are in direct contact with food prior to packaging, any damage to the buckets could mean product contamination from plastic fragments. As a result, a requirement has arisen that all plastic parts that could come into contact with food are both detectable, as well as food-contact approved. Metal detectable plastic buckets from Gough are compliant in both of these areas, with metal detectable chain sprockets also available.

Modular belt conveyor and metal detector.

Can metal detectors detect plastic?

As you’d expect, standard plastics cannot be detected by metal detectors, however, a solution has been sought to tackle the problem faced by food and beverage production lines. Gough Engineering’s metal detectable plastic buckets are made from weakly-magnetic, impact-resisting compounds. These are reliably detectable by already existing apparatus, widely used in the food-processing industry. Contaminated food can be automatically and reliably rejected, even when the foreign particles are only millimetres in size.

Contact our team of experts today to enquire about our metal detectable plastic buckets.