Consumers buying a packet of biscuits expect consistent quality of size, shape, colour, texture and flavour.

In the past, the baking industry has relied upon subjective assessments of quality using trained individuals, with baking time and oven temperature settings as production guides.  The current industry trend is to employ objective instruments, such as machine vision systems, to provide feedback on quality parameters.

Biscuit Inspection Australia-Wide

Such a system has recently been developed by the CRC for International Food Manufacture and Packaging Science.  The collaborative research and development project was conducted by Hamey Vision Systems in cooperation with Access Macquarie Ltd.  Industrial partner Arnott's Biscuits Ltd. has deployed the system in all their plants Australia-wide.  It is used to define and assess quality parameters for more than 100 products and has resulted in improved quality consistency and reduced consumer queries.

Innovation

Several novel technologies are incorporated into the system. Photometric calibration provides colour measurement accurate to better than 0.5%.  Image processing algorithms identify the biscuits within the image and provide data for artificial neural networks to assess the bake quality.  The combination of these technologies provides a method of bake quality assessment that is demonstrably precise.

Ease of use

The system is easy for baking staff to use.  The quality parameters are set by selecting samples and imaging them with the system.  No image analysis expertise is required to operate the system.  A simple user interface minimises training requirements.  These design decisions have assisted in the high level of acceptance of the system.

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