The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that in a refrigerated warehouse in Bolton, Ont., Plan Automation X-rays millions of kilograms of food annually for producers who suspect that inedible materials, such as glass, metal or rubber, have accidentally made their way into their products. The Globe's Pippa Norman writes that Plan Automation's X-Ray Reclaim branch has seen its revenue and sales double every year since 2021. It is the only company in Canada to offer emergency X-ray services to isolate contaminated products, preventing safe, good food from being thrown out. Contamination incidents occur every day when malfunctioning equipment or human error allow pieces of machinery or other contaminants to end up inside packaged foods. The standard response when a company finds a missing bolt or shard of glass in a product after hours of non-stop production is to throw away the entire batch out of an abundance of caution. It is estimated that 43 per cent, or 4.82 million tonnes, of food loss and waste during processing and manufacturing in Canada is avoidable. That is nearly $21-billion worth of food. Some large grocery chains such as Costco have even made the introduction of X-ray technology mandatory.