Take a bite of a stollen and suddenly a stone crunches between your teeth—to prevent this, the large Saxon bakery Emil Reimann has been using artificial intelligence (AI) for the past year. It analyzes X-ray images of the finished baked goods and helps detect even the tiniest impurities and foreign objects, as Nadine Sorkalla, the bakery’s quality management representative, explains.
AI checks at the end of production
The technology plays a key role at the end of the packaging process. “This is the final step involving the product, which determines whether it goes to the consumer or stays here at the company,” explains Sorkalla.
According to Sorkalla, foreign objects such as small stone fragments cannot be completely avoided. She notes that in traditional baked goods like stollen, gingerbread, or Baumkuchen, they can find their way into the products through ingredients sourced from international supply chains.
The bakery relies on regional products as much as possible, but not everything is grown locally—for example, sultanas, almonds, or spices. Monitoring for foreign objects is particularly important when it comes to natural raw materials. There have been problems in the past, for example, with sultanas from Iran, which is why the company switched suppliers.
