FOOD MANUFACTURING FAQs

Overweights happen when individual packs or portions come out heavier than intended. The usual causes are inconsistent product flow, worn or poorly calibrated equipment or target weights set too cautiously to avoid underweight rejections. Overweights and giveaways are closely linked and often point to the same underlying setup issue.

Getting speed and accuracy together comes down to four things:

• Feeding: Keep a steady, continuous flow onto the centre of the top cone so heads are neither starved nor flooded. The more heads ready, the more weight combinations the weigher can choose from. Losing just one available head can halve them.
• Setup: Isolate the weigher from vibration and draughts. Match the contact surfaces and bucket size to the product: dimpled or coated surfaces for sticky items, gentle handling and lower drop heights for fragile ones.
• Tuning: Adjust feeder amplitude and timing for each product. For high speeds, use staggered dumps and fewer buckets per combination.
• Calibration and cleaning: Zero the load cells every shift and run a full-span calibration weekly. Keep hoppers and feed pans clean, because buildup causes drifting weights and extra giveaway.

A balanced line has every station working at roughly the same pace, so nothing waits and nothing backs up.

• Set the pace: Calculate takt time (available production time ÷ customer demand).
• Measure each task: Time filling, sealing, labelling and cartoning to find stations that are too slow or have spare capacity.
• Synchronise speeds: Run downstream equipment slightly faster than upstream, for example the case packer slightly faster than the filler.
• Fix the bottleneck: The slowest point sets the line’s output, so put extra people or equipment there. Use real-time data to spot new bottlenecks.
• Organise the line: Apply 5S, keep materials within easy reach, and lay the line out so product flows forward without backtracking.
• Speed up changeovers: Use SMED. Prepare everything you can while the line is still running, and pre-stage the next SKU’s film, cartons and labels.

UK and EU food law recognises 14 major allergens that must be declared on food labels. These are celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, tree nuts, peanuts, sesame, soybeans and sulphur dioxide or sulphites.

Food Safety Level 2 covers the basics anyone handling food needs to know, including personal hygiene, cross-contamination, safe temperatures, cleaning schedules and how to recognise and report hazards. It’s aimed at food handlers rather than supervisors and is usually a prerequisite before moving on to Level 3.

BRCGS is a globally recognised food safety certification standard that verifies a manufacturer meets strict requirements for hygiene, quality and safety management. Many UK and international retailers require BRCGS certification before listing a supplier’s products, which makes it one of the most widely held certifications in food manufacturing.

Downtime on a food production line is usually caused by equipment breakdowns, changeovers, cleaning schedules, staff waiting on information or unplanned stops from quality and safety issues. Much of it is preventable with better maintenance planning and faster access to the right operating knowledge when something goes wrong.

Most workplaces refresh it every one to three years, depending on customer and manufacturer requirements, the role, and the site’s own procedures. Higher-risk roles, or sites supplying customers with stricter standards, often require annual refreshers. Training should also be updated sooner if the role, legislation or site procedures change. Always check your certificate and your employer’s policy for the exact requirement.

HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, a system for identifying and controlling food safety risks at each stage of production. It’s a legal requirement for global food businesses and forms the backbone of most food safety management systems, including BRCGS.

No. Systems like SmartFactory handle things like production planning, line data and breakdown reporting. Foodability works alongside those systems rather than replacing them. It gives production and line staff real-time answers, best practice guidance and training, supported by images, video and animation, to help them solve problems as they happen.

No. Foodability doesn’t collect or analyse production data for reporting. It focuses on giving staff the knowledge and guidance they need in the moment, to reduce downtime, speed up changeovers and cut mistakes.