When you look at a product in the store do you ever wonder how it got there, who touched it first and if the transport of that item was done in the cleanest most disease free environment possible?In the US, the careful monitoring of food and drugs and the machines used for processing and packaging them are under the control of the FDA or American Food and Drug Administration. This government body is the main line of defense between growers or drug manufacturers, processors and those who handle the products we consume.

What Equipment is Used

One of the main questions asked when looking at this process is what equipment is used?  Crucial pieces of machinery are the bottle handling equipment designed to fill our packages, seal them from air, water and other contaminants.  These bottling machines are responsible for ensuring that everything is sterilized, filled with the proper product and quantity of that product, sealed and labeled correctly.  

Removing the Human Component

The main function of these machines is to remove the human element from the equation. As you know humans can easily contaminate an area, product or environment fairly quickly. When dealing with the products we use everyday, they can easily become contaminated, damaged or tampered with in such a way that the health and wellbeing of the general public would be put at risk.

Medication Tampering

With the bottling machines we are able to manage and supervise the disbursement of medications. We are able to have accurate counts, ensure that medications don’t become compromised and ensure that what is supposed to be in the bottles are in the bottles. When relying on a human to do these tasks we open ourselves up for increasing theft, errors and tampering.

Focusing on Healthcare

The primary concern for these companies is to focus on healthcare. When we look at every situation as a possibility of making someone ill, causing damage to a large portion of the population or worse, ensuring that these machines are working properly, are maintained on a regular basis and fill a rigorous testing process there should be no concern by the public as to the safety of the products handled by these machines.

Issues if the Machines Were Not Used

Some of the issues we might face if these machines didn’t exist are vast and ones that we don’t want to think of. First of all the risk for contamination would be greater. With the machines the bottles and other packaging products will go through a series of specially designed stations where they are scanned by lasers. These lasers will look for initial contamination. Next is the removal of human error. When working with the machines they are run by computers that check and recheck their movements and actions over and over again. With the human mind however, these errors could pop up either on purpose due to lack of motivation or through accidental contamination of carelessness, fatigue or other outside reasons.