Maintaining high health-safety standards to sustain business operations and meet new and emerging compliance regulations is of paramount importance to professionals in  the global food processing and manufacturing industry. AI-driven video analytics solutions from ISS employing cutting edge processing technology from Intel provide food suppliers and manufacturers with new intelligent solutions that automate critical safeguards with extreme accuracy and precision while reducing time and costs.

The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 600 million people a year suffer from the effects of food products contaminated with biological or chemical substances. Most of these events were the result of either of poor-quality control standards or deliberate employee action. The global pandemic has only heightened the focus on health safety issues, making compliance with industry and government mandates even more impactful on business operations.

Alarming cases of widespread contamination

For example, in 2006, a large UK confectionary group sold over one million chocolate bars contaminated with salmonella bacteria.²  A year later, a U.S.-based meat processor recalled 21.7 million pounds of hamburger patties because they contained dangerous levels of E. coli bacteria.³  And in 2013, a Japanese company had to recall six million packages of frozen food after an employee tainted the products with a pesticide, sickening 2,800 consumers.⁴ In addition to the potential for causing illness or death, companies forced to recall products face severe financial challenges, including the loss of product, possible lawsuits, and the mistrust of consumers and investors.

Manual operations still essential
Despite extensive automated manufacturing operations, food processing still depends upon a great deal of manual labor, which introduces the potential for human error. Contamination can occur due to poor quality control, such as the lack of hand sanitization or improper use of protective equipment.

Now there are intelligent analytics that can be easily deployed using conventional video camera systems that provide the food industry with the ability to autonomously monitor food production cycles to ensure they adhere to proper health standards.

Machine learning analyzes human movement

ISS’ SecurOS™ intelligent video surveillance platform developed in conjunction with Intel technology performs as a virtual health and safety officer 24/7. The advanced, cost-effective solution accomplishes this by combining advanced analytics developed with Intel Open Vino with Intel 3D camera technology to track the movement of key points of a person’s skeletal structure, including their head, shoulders, elbows and hands, effectively detecting and analyzing workers’ movements.

This allows SecurOS solution to discern the difference between acceptable and prohibited behaviors, such as someone reaching into a receptacle containing exposed food products, entering a prohibited area, or performing an action like climbing a ladder to adjust a device during production. When such a violation is detected, the system automatically alerts supervisors electronically and/or sounds audio alarms. The system captures data on all events and activities, and generates reports detailing infractions without the need for any human intervention.

Additional modules expand safety options
The advanced SecurOS platform is scalable with purpose-built modules designed for specific health and safety applications, including helmet, hardhat and mask detection, and hand sanitation monitoring. The solution also features world-class FaceX facial recognition technology for personnel identification and authentication, which allows the system to detect and analyze if an unauthorized individual has entered a sensitive or dangerous area. FaceX also provides the ideal access control credentialing solution – face as a credential — while also determining if individuals are wearing required personal protection and following mandated processes and procedures. A touchless solution, FaceX can help food industry operations meet increasingly stringent requirements for today’s challenging health-safety environments.

Intelligent, autonomous technology
The range of applications for intelligent video analytics in the food industry continues to evolve as new applications are being developed using advanced AI-driven solutions that can “learn” new applications. Powerful solutions like ISS’ SecurOS video analytics platform provides a scalable, future-proofed solution to cost-effectively meet new and emerging challenges across the global food manufacturing and processing industry. Contact our team of video analytics specialists to discuss how ISS can help you better maintain business operations today into tomorrow.