Plastic contamination

Plastic contaminationPlastic contamination is common in all types of packaging (boxes, bottles, jars, cans, pouchers) and in all food industries. Plastic is, however, very hard to detect with X-Ray. The density of most plastics is very low and often the same as the food in which the plastic particles are located and therefore undetectable. The colour is not important.

There are many types of plastics: PETE, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, PS and many more. The use is therefore prevalent in the food industry. Common contaminants are: parts of bags (often PE very thin and undetectable!), parts of crates (often HDPE and sometimes detectable)

Plastic should always be tested to determine whether detection is possible
When dealing with possible plastic contamination, ScreenTec always tests to establish the validation of the screening. The concept of hardness often does not apply to plastic, so hard pieces of plastic can often also have a low density.

The advice for plastic pollution is therefore: Test because you never know…