TRUE COLORS SHINING THROUGH
We've all seen them before, those discount stickers on products that aren't to fresh anymore, or will even expire anytime soon. However, that doesn't tell us too much about the product really, it is just based on the set date, but in fact the product could still be in perfect shape. Nonetheless, because of that system a lot of food is being thrown out and that is what this undermetioned innovation is trying to prevent. Brazilian petrochemical firm Braskem has developed a brand new kind of packaging that uses pH indicators to detect and change colour with the food’s freshness. Many people still don’t know the difference between Best Before or Use By, and are often too scared to eat what is often perfectly healthy food due to the vague nature of labelling. But imagine if the food was wrapped in packaging that analysed the food and altered colour to indicate its health?
Enter Braskem, a Brazilian petrochemical company who has collaborated with Universities in both Brazil and the US to develop a new packaging that does change colour as food spoils, specifically by detecting pH changes and other elements that suggest the food is turning bad. Research first started back in 2013 with a prototype emerging last year.
Braskem are not the only company attempting to develop intelligent packaging.
In the past, a team at the University of Rhode Island came up with heat-sensing UPC codes that could adapt to different colour when the food warmed up, and shortly after researchers in China developed small smart tags that could be attached to packaging and helped customers judge the condition of food.
Source: Braskem
