A new Polypropylene (PP) compound containing metal additive is used that allows processors to ensure that foods that have accidentally been contaminated with the product either through human error or because pieces have been broken off without being noticed, can be removed.
A new EU hygiene legislation has been implemented on 1 January 2006, with the primary objective being to optimize public health protection by improving and modernizing the existing EU legislation. The new legislation maintains more clearly, the duty of food business operators to produce food safely. Requirements for food business operators are laid down in the new EU Regulation 852/2004.

The food and pharmaceutical industries are persistently faced with an ever-present risk of contamination that, if undetected, can result in damage to equipment, costs incurred through product recalls, a negative impact on the company's reputation. In the worst case, the person consuming the contaminant could be seriously injured. The simplest measure that can be taken is to use only metal implements - such as spatulas, scoops and scrapers - and install an inline metal detection system that can detect any metallic contamination of the product and automatically reject it. However, there are drawbacks with this approach, as metal implements are costly, especially if manufactured from stainless steel, they can be heavy, and the geometries that can be created at a reasonable cost are somewhat limited.

In some cases, therefore, plastic implements are used, with the polymer grade selected so as to minimize the chance of breakage. A novel material has recently been developed that could help food and pharmaceutical manufacturers comply with the new Regulations, providing them an opportunity to use cost-effective, functional, ergonomic plastic implements that are approved for food-contact use. The injection moulded product is a specially formulated, non-toxic, non-fibrous grade of polypropylene that has a metal-based additive so that fragments as small as a 2 mm cube (weighing 0.01 g) can be detected and rejected, depending on the metal detection equipment used. The material also has the advantage of being 'shatterproof and virtually unbreakable', inherently reducing the risk of any fragments entering the food or pharmaceutical product. The product is approved for direct food contact under EU Directive 90/128/EEC rules from the FDA (the USA Food and Drug Administration).

Besides having tremendous potential in the food and pharmaceutical industry, this innovative material offers potential in military applications that can take advantage of the high-impact, corrosion-resistant, easily-formed material. In the medical sector, surgical instruments could be moulded from the material, which would help to avoid instances of instruments � or parts thereof � being inadvertently left inside a patient following an operation.

Nevertheless, using plastic implements carries with it a risk that small fragments could contaminate the product and remain undetected.