Random Question: Why would someone need earplugs that are "metal detectable"?

Question

I need to buy some earplugs for work and I happened upon a site that sells a line of earplugs that they say can be detected by a metal detector?

If you work in an industry that commonly uses earplugs will you please explain why someone would need these kinds of earplugs?

Answer 1

Very interesting.  I never heard of them..  I would guess that they would be used in the food industry because they could fall into a batch of something and contaminate it.  Food factories use metal detectors to check for junk that gets dropped into the mix.  Ordinary foam earplugs would be completely undetectable in a loaf of bread or a sausage, but it would be very disgusting to bite into one.

Answer 2

Earplugs are small enough to get 'lost'.  You need to ensure that they don't end up in your product, particularly if you work in the food industry!  

Production lines in places like wholesale bakeries are noisy enough to require ear protection and normally use metal detection technology to check their output for foreign objects.