FlexXray, the nation’s leader in third-party inspection services for the food industry, today announced the release of the 2025 Foreign Material Contamination in Food Benchmark Report. Based on survey responses from more than 160 food safety and manufacturing professionals across North America, the report provides a rare, data-driven look into how the industry is addressing foreign material contamination.
Foreign material contamination continues to be one of the costliest and most frequent disruptions in food production, yet industry responses vary widely. FlexXray’s benchmark report highlights trends in:
- Incident Frequency – 73% of producers surveyed experience foreign material events multiple times per year
- Detection Confidence – Less than 20% of producers surveyed are very confident in their in-line technology’s effectiveness in detecting all foreign material
- Response Protocols – One-third of respondents still opt to use those in-house resources to handle foreign material events, despite the marked lack of confidence
“Food safety leaders know that foreign material contamination is a persistent challenge, but until now there hasn’t been a clear, industry-wide snapshot of how often it happens and how facilities are responding,” said Kurt Westmoreland, Chief Commercial Officer. “This report gives food safety and manufacturing leaders data they can use to benchmark their own operations and uncover opportunities to strengthen their food safety programs.”
