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Printable Smart Labels Tell You When the Milk's Gone Bad
chicksdaddy writes "Security Ledger brings news that the Norwegian firm, ThinFilm has successfully tested a printable electronics component that it claims is the first, fully-functional 'smart' label. The company claims its disposable Smart Sensor Label can track the temperature of perishable goods and is a 'complete closed system built from printed and organic electronics.' Smart Sensor is being marketed to pharmaceutical makers as a way to keep temperature-sensitive drugs and to food wholesalers, which can track the temperature their product is kept at throughout the supply chain. When 'critical temperature thresholds are reached, the Smart Sensor label will change to indicate that using an integrated display driver. Such labels could make it possible to easily monitor the condition of large quantities of product, keeping it safe and effective and preventing perfectly usable products from being destroyed. But the possible applications of printable electronics are huge: they can be produced for a fraction of the cost of comparable technologies because they don't need to be assembled. And, because they're flexible and paper-like, they can be deployed pretty much anywhere you can stick a label — something ThinFilm's CEO says could provide an extensible platform for the much-ballyhooed 'Internet of Things.'"
For 2,000 years the human nose (standard equipment on most humans) was not the correct way to detect foul and spoiled milk? We were drinking bad milk the whole time, or what? My bad milk detector? No production cost, and zero use cost.
The 80s called, they want their mood ring back..
There have been products that have liquid crystal foil labels that change color or have a rising bar to show temperature, similar to aquariums that have a stick-on temperature strip in a corner. I believe that beer with a can that tells you when it's Rocky Mountain cold uses that sort of technology but I don't know for sure.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Sounds like a good idea, but you're competing against a plain old "best before x/x/x" text.
I fear that these smart labels could be too sensitive, and give a false report I expired food. Thus telling me I need to throw away perfectly good food and buy more.
There's very little incentive to NOT make them too sensitive.
Like a mood ring?
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
This would be more useful if it provided a log, rather than just high/low readings.
temperature sensitive stickers have been in use for decades for transportation of food. This is nothing new.
I can see how this could be very very useful in pharmacology, or for clinical trials, or for clinicians storing drugs that either require rigourous temperature controls or otherwise spoil under certain conditions or length of time. It will be a useful tool to their existing arsenal of temperature monitoring etc.
But for Milk or any other food product, seriously? How stupid do people have to be they need a label to tell them their lumpy milk has gone off or their fizzy coleslaw is past its best or the mouldy yogurt has been open too long? Maybe it's for the same group of people who live by "Best Before dates" and are incapable of independent thought or common sense rationale.
The consequences of eating gone off dairy produce is at best and unpleasant taste of that sour milk, at it's realistic worse it's a mild tummy upset if you eat that whole tub of fizzy coleslaw. Do we really need a label to tell stupid people not to drink the sour milk?
The Pharma industry has been using specially treated temerature indicators in their packaging to note exceptional/out-of-range temperatures for pharmaceuticals in transit, llike these tempstrips:
Source
The milk examle use is silly - the risk of milk spoiling is low, but the technology could have other, more useful applications, esp. if they could integrate it with an RFID tag to sense spoiled product without visually inspecting each container.
Ken
Pick the refridgerated items last before checkout. The date on the milk container is a 'sell by' date. Choose wisely. Look towards the back of the shelf for the latest 'sell by' date. Choosing from the back of the shelf—particularly in the case of milk—means that your milk won't have acquired the Light Activated Taste because it was sitting next to the flourescent shelf lighting. Supermarkets always stock the freshest items at the back of the shelf—watch the bread man stock his product.
I, for one, welcome our new organic electronics overlords.
What is desperately needed is a sticker to let you know if your beer has ever been permitted to sit on a loading dock too long, god forbid it might sit in the sun. Forget milk, we need to use this technology to win the war on skunky beer.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I wish that more of the money goes to the farmer and less to the package please.
how is this less expensive than just placing a single thermometer on each shelf? seriously, it's a interesting tech but making temperature labels is solving a non-problem.
i think they would be better off changing to using their tech in applications where sensors can be put on people's skin like temporary tattoos to replace bulky systems. a heartrate monitor would be good place to start. though this could be very useful for tracking both location and status of hospital patients or the residents of homes for the elderly, especially those with dementia or alzheimer's.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Is it skim or 1% milk? Is it within 14 days of the expiration date? (in other words, every store-brand milk, ever)
Don't bother opening it; just throw it away. I'm 99.44% sure that it's already spoiled, and it will smell and taste funny if you open it.
These days I only buy half-gallons of 1% "ultra pasteurized" milk. The stuff is amazing; it supposedly has a room temperature shelf life of around a month! I stock up on mine with expiration dates 4-6 weeks out, and it always tastes fresh when you open it even if you keep it in the fridge for a few weeks before opening it.
Caution: It bacteria gets in when you open it, so it will go bad in less than a week after you open it, even if you store it 40F / 4C. Be prepared to drink the whole thing in a couple of days; that's why I only buy half gallons.
Retailers already take liberties with their labeling. So how will such labels make things any better? In fact they will make expiry dates less discernable, and more unreliable. But that might suit retailers better, so there is probably millions to be made with such a product.
You'll get cheese after a week.
Sorry, that was way too obvious.
Also short temperature bursts are no problem for any good milk.
I fail to see the benefit for mankind.
Milk doesn't go "bad" if it was collected and handled in a native way. The natural microbiology in it would start consuming the sugars and turn it "sour" in a tasty way.
Only with modern mechanical pasteurized and homogenized milk do you have this problem.
The milk is completely sterilized so is open to any microbiology taking over.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
There are already time-temperature indicators, which are low-cost, (usually) non-electronic devices affixed to perishable products to check whether they've remained in the appropriate range, and how long they were out of that range. Those are what this new tech is competing with, not the temperature-sensitive LCD strips you see on aquariums.
The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
You insensitive clod!
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No really, I am anosmic, (complete inability to smell)
I would love things like these.
Maybe a portable detector signalling foul odours, coz if you baked me a cake literally full of shit, I wouldn't know.
I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
Period.
One more way to increase the price of food with no actual improvement. This also means more money goes to middlemen rather than to the farmer.
Alternative, use your nose and good sense - Not available everywhere.