Nondestructive Air-coupled Ultrasound Measurement in the Food Industries

This article reviews the most recent researches about the use of nondestructive air-coupled ultrasound in food industries. In the field of food quality assessment, in several researches detection of foreign bodies, and measurement certain parameters of interest, such as the amount of a certain additives are investigated. Also in other research a rapid, non-contact and non-destructive air-coupled ultrasound technique has shown itself to be a feasible method for investigating the quality of milk-based beverages, and possibly other food products. Air-coupled ultrasound can be used in on-line situations for measuring food materials such as chocolate and cheese. It is also capable of performing nondestructive measurements on moving sealed metal cans containing food, and is able to detect foreign bodies with the top removed, as encountered before sealing. Air-coupled ultrasound has been used to perform measurements on liquids and starch-based materials, within containers similar to those used in the food industry. Ultrasonic pulse-compression (UPC) is then applied to increase the sensitivity of signals transmitted through the containers. It will be demonstrated that various nondestructive non-contact measurements are possible, including the detection of variations in consistency within starch-based liquids within a microwaveable food container, measuring of beverage level in polymer-based bottles, and the tomographic imaging of likewise containers to detect foreign objects.

Keywords:

Air-coupled ultrasound , Nondestructive , Non-contact ultrasound , Food quality.