Manufacturers of packaged food and beverages focus their immediate attention on the quality of the packaging seals. They need to check the seal integrity of the package before the products are shipped to the consumer. This process is essential for products that are of high value or for products that can expire such as biscuits, chips, milk powder and pet foods. Compromised seal introduces contaminating agent, such as air and moisture, that will diminish product quality, accelerate its decomposition rate and damage the products. The damaged products impose significant health hazard to the consumers and they also adversely affect the company credibility and reputation. This can lead to unwarranted consequences such as recalling products from shelf, audit from food regulator and financial damage.
This is why food and beverage manufacturers need to check and assess the quality of seals with seal integrity testing so that they encounter any package with compromised seal on the conveyor belt itself, rather than anticipate a product recall.
When Should Seal Integrity Testing Be Conducted?
Testing the packaging seal integrity protects the quality of the contents. The testing is ideally conducted at the production line on a regular basis. Manufacturers may also consider to conduct additional tests when there is a change of design to the packaging, such as using different materials, or whenever there is a change in the sealing conditions at the manufacturing plant. This is done to maintain the high-quality packaging and it also provides them with opportunity to detect errors at the early stage. If packages leak as a result of the different sealing condition, operators can use the underwater leak tester to detect the exact location of leak and make necessary changes to the settings in the equipment.
What are The Different Seal Integrity Testing Methods?
Product manufacturers employ different leak testing systems to check for their seal integrity testing. These seal integrity testing methods are a standard part of the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point), quality control processes and food safety. One of the robust and accurate seal integrity test methods is the vacuum decay test for sealed and canned packaging varieties.
For canned food products, the pressure exerted to create seals, may retort and cause stress. Visually, these seals are checked for any dents, mechanical defects, perforations or rust spots in the production facility before they are sent for distribution. But the stresses induced during the sealing can rupture the seals when undue forces act on it. Visually, the smallest opening, leaks in the order of microns will not be visible, and so a more robust, accurate test method is deployed.
Pressure and Vacuum Seal Integrity Testing Methods
The vacuum decay testing is a useful technique for checking micro leaks in canned products. At SealTick TSE6084 can seal integrity tester works on the principle of vacuum decay. Users can initiate the test by manually putting the products in the testing chamber and close the lid. The product is placed in the test chamber, which will be put under vacuum. For non-leaking package, there will be no significant change in the vacuum level. However, if a leak exists, there will be a significant drop in the vacuum level in a short period of time as air escapes from the leaking package. Results are displayed with Pass or Fail lamps, along with a quantitative measure of the leakage rate.
SealTick TSE6084 leak tester can test Cylindrical Cans made from Tin, Cardboard, or Composite materials (a combination of paper, plastic and metal). Holes/Leaks as small as 15 microns in diameter can be detected with this equipment. This equipment offers a non-destructive testing which ensures the packages are in the original condition and are suitable to be returned onto the production line, if they pass the test. This minimizes waste in the production line and help the company to make extra savings and profit on the product. This innovative leak tester requires the packages with a “head-space” of air (or gas) and have a dried content for accurate and reliable measurement.
