In the Works: An Ingenious Way to Identify Expired Food

It’s an international problem continuously in search of a solution.  Some folks forget to discard (or don’t recognize) spoiled food; others, fearing contamination, throw out perfectly good food.  Now “smart” packaging—which tells consumers when their food is going bad—is being developed by researchers in Glasgow, Scotland. 

At Strathclyde University, scientists are working on indicators made from “intelligent” plastics.  They change color when food loses its freshness.  The developers hope to have a commercially viable version ready to market in the near future.  The goal is for these smart wrapping materials to tell consumers when food is about to lose its freshness because of damaged packaging, poor refrigeration, or old age (being beyond its “use by” date).

“Smart” packaging will be used with modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), which removes oxygen and replaces it with other gases that do not cause food to deteriorate. MAP is widely used in the packaging of meat, poultry, and other raw products.  For more information about MAP, click here: http://shelflifeadvice.com/content/can-i-refrigerate-meat-and-poultry-its-store-wrapping

Professor Andrew Mills, director of the Strathclyde project, hopes that these new plastic wrappings will decrease both consumption of spoiled food and the wasteful discarding of food that has not expired.  Other benefits that could be derived from these color-changing plastics include these: 1) They could resolve the confusion between “use by,” “best before” and “sell by” dates that befuddle and irritate consumers.  2) They could call attention to the importance of storing food in a refrigerator that’s properly sealed and therefore at the temperature needed to keep pathogens from growing on foods. 

In October, 2010, Shelf Life Advice posted a “Food in the News” item about a Norwegian product—the shelf life indicator—that has a goal similar to the “smart” packaging described above.  This product is a label that’s sensitive to time and temperature and is able to tell store managers and consumers how close to expiration a food is.  To read more about the shelf life indicator, click here: http://shelflifeadvice.com/content/guess-what-new-technology-could-replace-use-by-dates-foods

Source(s):

BBC News Glasgow & West  “Smart wrapping developed to detect ‘off food’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12128120