Imagine producing edible oil, hiring a large team to monitor the quality, and yet finding impurities in the product? 

Sounds frustrating, doesn’t it? 

Well, that’s what happened with one of the leading edible oil manufacturers in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region. 

The manufacturer faced challenges in maintaining the quality and purity of their cooking oil. 

There were foreign particles in the oil, which posed a risk to consumers’ health and the brand’s reputation. 

The manufacturer assigned 50 workers to work in three shifts to inspect the oil bottles visually. However, the manual process was labor-intensive, time-consuming, and prone to errors. Foreign particles like black particles, residual debris, and dust were commonly found in the oil during storage and transportation. 

The Saudi Arabian oil manufacturer’s problem is just one example. 

Many oil manufacturers lose millions of dollars in recalls due to contaminants found in the oil bottle. 

In one of the studies, researchers found 2.5 to 9 billion particles per 1 liter of oil! 

These particles came from plastic containers that broke slowly. 

Foreign objects in edible oil are not new. It is common for manufacturers and consumers to find metal fragments, plastic shards, black particles, or even a random dead mosquito in the bottles. 

These contaminants can enter the bottle through production, storage, or even shipments. 

The good news is that oil manufacturers can prevent them from contaminating the bottle. 

However, it cannot be done manually. Manufacturers need to replace manual visual inspection with automation. 

That’s where vision AI comes to the rescue.  

Let’s understand it further.  

What Is Vision AI And How Can Oil Manufacturers Improve Foreign Object Detection With Vision AI? 

Vision AI combines high-resolution cameras and AI-powered software to capture images and interpret and analyze them to identify objects, detect patterns, and extract valuable insights to act upon. 

Oil manufacturers typically use it during production and quality assurance (QA) stages to detect foreign particles. 

It helps oil manufacturers: 

• Improve efficiency as real-time visual inspection ensures that corrective actions are taken on time 

• Eliminate error as the process is automated and the systems run 24/7 with a consistent capability of detecting foreign objects 

• Save costs and brand reputation by enhancing the quality of oil and decreasing instances of recalls 

Here’s how Computer Vision works: 

• Image acquisition: This is the first step. In this step, high-resolution cameras are placed in the production lines. These cameras are positioned at various angles for comprehensive coverage. Using methods like backlighting and side-lighting, companies can easily spot the black spots, particles, plastic shards, and other foreign bodies. The software, meanwhile, processes thousands of images every minute to pick flaws. 

• Image pre-processing: The captured images are then processed to improve their quality, reduce Gaussian noise, and improve contrasts to enable companies to differentiate between the oil and its impurities. 

• Image analysis and impurity detection: In this stage, AI models help companies identify foreign objects in oil based on color, shape, and appearance. Next, with the help of AI, companies segregate the object from the background and classify it as hair, metal, plastic, etc. 

When AI detects a foreign object, it immediately alerts the staff members to isolate the contaminated product from the product line. This ensures that contaminated oil does not reach the consumer. 

How The Saudi Arabian Oil Manufacturer Improved The Oil Quality 

The Saudi Arabian oil manufacturer also used Vision AI to enhance the quality of its product. 

It installed high-resolution cameras and lighting systems on the production line to capture the oil filling process. Using a custom AI/ML algorithm, the manufacturer could accurately detect the foreign particles, such as black specs, in the plastic bottle. The system would send real-time alerts every time it detected foreign particles, notifying staff members to take corrective actions. 

By automating the visual inspection process, the manufacturer could improve the accuracy and quality of the product and eliminate quality check errors. 

Besides the enhanced quality, it helped the manufacturer increase the production throughput, achieve the highest standards of safety and purity, and maintain consumer trust and brand reputation.  

The manufacturer successfully reduced inspection labor by 60% and saved $200,000 on labor and product waste. 

 Read the case study to know more. 

Conclusion 

Detecting impurities and ensuring contamination-free transparent liquids requires more than manual inspection. Manual checks, even with large teams, cannot always prevent foreign particles and plastic shards from entering the liquid, like edible oil. 

What manufacturers need is consistent quality checks, and that’s possible with Vision AI. 

Vision AI combines the capabilities of AI, high-resolution cameras, and machine learning algorithms to capture images, process them, and detect objects that are not visible to a normal human eye. 

Vision AI may have various use cases across different industries. However, foreign object detection continues to be one of the underrated ones. 

By implementing Vision AI, manufacturers can automate inspection, reduce labor costs, and build consumer trust. It shields the manufacturers from quality and compliance hassles. 

At AegisVision, we understand the significance of using Vision AI for foreign object detection. That’s why we provide end-to-end Vision AI services that help manufacturers automate visual inspection, identify errors, and safeguard the quality of products. 

For more information on how AegisVision can help companies improve quality and detect foreign objects, contact us. 

FAQs 

Q. Why is manual inspection inefficient in detecting foreign objects in edible oil? 

Manual visual inspection is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Additionally, the process is susceptible to human oversights and fatigue. This makes it difficult for humans to detect minute foreign objects all the time.  

Q. How can Vision AI help oil manufacturers improve foreign object detection? 

Vision AI combines high-resolution cameras and AI-powered software to capture, process, and inspect thousands of images per minute. It can easily detect impurities, such as foreign particles and plastic shards, and send real-time alerts to the relevant team to take timely action.  

 Q. What are the benefits of using Vision AI in foreign object detection? 

By using Vision AI, oil manufacturers can reduce costs on labor and product recalls, improve production throughput, and deliver high-quality oil to consumers.