X-ray units are joining metal detectors as a quality-assurance tool in food manufacturing.
An assistant vice president with Costco Wholesale Corp. in Issaquah, WA, Wilson heads the club stores' food safety department. Last summer, he fired off a letter to Costco's food suppliers, "challenging our vendors to consider adopting X-ray inspection, which is 40-year-old technology at this point," Wilson recounts. "We now require metal detectors. We will soon require X-ray."