As food processors respond to pressure for product variety, SKU expansion and accelerated throughput, multilane production lines have become a common strategy. Eagle Product Inspection’s new Pack 550 PRO X-ray system answers this shift with a high-speed inspection platform designed for diverse packaging formats and faster line speeds.

The need for adaptable inspection technology has grown, with processors often reconfiguring their production lines to handle more product and packaging types simultaneously. Recognizing this shift, Eagle engineered the Pack 550 PRO to help manufacturers maintain contaminant detection accuracy, ensure product integrity, and meet retailer and regulatory demands — even as packaging complexity increases.

Operating at speeds up to 90 meters per minute, the Pack 550 PRO leverages Eagle’s SimulTask PRO imaging software, delivering high-resolution, deep-contrast inspection, even on complex product mixes, such as salad blends, snack mixes, cereals, confectionery and frozen foods. The system can also incorporate Eagle’s PXT photon-counting, dual-energy technology that enables processors to obtain higher-resolution images and capture detailed data about the product being inspected. The system allows users to differentiate materials by chemical composition, improving detection in products with dense or overlapping ingredients that often challenge traditional X-ray systems.

Beyond contaminant detection, the Pack 550 PRO also offers fully integrated inline quality checks, including mass measurement, package integrity verification and component count, which are tools for maintaining safety and customer satisfaction across diverse retail offerings.

With built-in Eagle Repository analytics, manufacturers can access real-time production data, rejected image archives and inspection records to support audits, traceability initiatives and continuous process improvement.

“Retailer specifications, private-label programs and regulatory expectations are driving greater complexity on today’s production lines,” says Christy Draus, head of product marketing at Eagle. “The Pack 550 PRO helps processors stay agile without compromising inspection performance, even when running multiple products or performing rework on the same line.”

As multilane processing becomes a standard approach to meet modern production demands, systems like the Pack 550 PRO provide processors with the versatility and data-driven quality assurance needed to futureproof their food safety programs.