Simulation Study of Ultrasonic Tomography Approach in Detecting Foreign Object in Milk Packaging

Abstract

Contaminant issues are one of the major concerns in food and beverages (F&B) industries because it compromises the product and brand. In general, there are three types of food and beverages contaminant, which are biological, chemical, and physical hazards. The physical hazard is the most common occurred in the F&B manufacturing industries. The current application of solid contamination detector such as X-Ray machine and metal detector involves hazardous radiation. Therefore, tomography approach is proposed due to its ability to detect contamination with less or little hazardous radiation. This research focuses on non-invasive and non-intrusive tomography techniques to detect foreign objects without affecting the ingredient and the original form of food. Moreover, a simulation will be performed to detect the existence of foreign objects in small milk carton using ultrasonic tomography approach via COMSOL Multiphysics software. This paper discusses the conceptual modelling design of ultrasonic tomography approach and the analysis of its voltage output. 1 mm size of foreign object is deliberately put inside the milk packaging. The results show that the proposed conceptual modelling can identify the existence of foreign object in the homogenous milk medium.