The monitoring of the food manufacturing process is vital since it determines the safety and quality level of foods which directly affect the consumers’ health. Companies which produce high quality products will gain trust from consumers. This factor helps the companies to make profits. The use of efficient and appropriate sensors for the monitoring process can also reduce cost. The food assessing process based on an ultrasonic sensor has attracted the attention of the food industry due to its excellent capabilities in several applications. The utilization of low or high frequencies for the ultrasonic transducer has provided an enormous benefit for analysing, modifying and guaranteeing the quality of food. The contact and non-contact ultrasonic modes for measurement also contributed significantly to the food processing. This paper presents a review of the application of the contact and non-contact mode of ultrasonic measurement focusing on safety and quality control areas. The results from previous researches are shown and elaborated.

Turbidity is a measure of water quality. Excessive turbidity poses a threat to health and causes pollution. Most of the available mathematical models of water treatment plants do not capture turbidity. A reliable model is essential for effective removal of turbidity in the water treatment plant. This paper presents a comparison of Hammerstein Wiener and neural network technique for estimating of turbidity in water treatment plant. The models were validated using an experimental data from Tamburawa water treatment plant in Kano, Nigeria. Simulation results demonstrated that the neural network model outperformed the Hammerstein-Wiener model in estimating the turbidity. The neural network model may serve as a valuable tool for predicting the turbidity in the plant.

Foreign body in food is a matter of concern in food industry as it determines the safety and quality of the product. This issue leads to anxiety as it is hazardous if it is accidentally being consumed. Therefore, foreign body detection is urgently needed. Noninvasive techniques are attractive as they can be used to evaluate without altering the originality of the food products in terms of ingredient and structure. With the growing interest in this subject, this article reviews the development of noninvasive techniques including X‐ray, thermal imaging, near‐infrared spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, ultrasonic, and terahertz. The principle and application of each technique are elaborated. The performances and limitations from previous studies in several types of food applications are analyzed. In addition, future trends and challenges encountered with these techniques are highlighted. It is envisaged that the information gathered in this article will be a valuable source of information for researchers working in this topic. Practical applications The existence of foreign bodies in food causes degradation of their quality and safety. The implementation of the noninvasive technique as a monitoring tool have received an encouraging response from the manufacturers which endeavors to maintain their credibility and reputation. This review serves to provide an up‐to‐date development on the noninvasive technique for detecting foreign bodies which is useful for academicians and researchers especially from the food processing industries.

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Purpose – This paper aims to present a review of the design and development of the turbidimeter for measuring the turbidity level in water. Monitoring the turbidity level of water is important because it is related to public health. Design/methodology/approach – A precise and reliable turbidimeter can provide vital data that reveals the water condition level. Several turbidimeter units are discussed briefly. Three types of turbidimeter design – single beam, ratio and modulated four beams – are elaborated with some illustrations of the design concept. Various improvements and innovations for upgrading turbidimeter design are also discussed. Findings – This paper elaborated on a new method of estimating the water turbidity level in water samples using an optical tomography system based on the independent component analysis method. The results showed that a tomography-based turbidimeter can measure slight changes in the level of turbidity when the volume of contaminants is changed slightly. The turbidimeter can also provide a profile of the distribution of the turbidity in the water sample. Originality/value – A turbidimeter based on the optical tomography concept can be a valuable tool in determining the level of pollution in rivers, sea, etc.