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Scientists Create Smart Labels To Tell You When To Throw Away Expired Food and Makeup (sciencemag.org)
At the 254th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society, researchers are presenting a low-cost, portable, paper-based sensor that can let you know when to toss food and cosmetics. The sensor can detect antioxidants in tea and wine, and be used to explore remote locations, such as the Amazon rainforest, in search of natural sources of antioxidants. "I've always been interested in developing technologies that are accessible to both industry and the general population," Silvana Andreescu, Ph.D., says. "My lab has built a versatile sensing platform that incorporates all the needed reagents for detection in a piece of paper. At the same time, it is adaptable to different targets, including food contaminants, antioxidants and free radicals that indicate spoilage." Phys.Org reports: What sets Andreescu's sensors apart from others, she says, are the nanostructures they use to catch and bind to compounds they're looking for. "Most people working on similar sensors use solutions that migrate on channels," Andreescu says. "We use stable, inorganic particles that are redox active. When they interact with the substances we want to detect, they change color, and the intensity of the change tells us how concentrated the analyte is." Additionally, because all of the reagents needed to operate the device are incorporated in the paper, users don't need to add anything other than the sample being tested. The American Chemical Society has published a video detailing the sensor. Their paper has been published in the journal Analyst.
Just don't make my cheese IOT. I don't want a hacker tricking me into eating mold if I get lazy, drunk, and/or Monday'd.
Table-ized A.I.
But apparently, we are now preparing for a population that becomes illiterate. Sure, expiry dates have some leeway, but people figure these out. Also, sensors can only tell when it is already bad and standard human sensors do a pretty good job of that as well.
Sounds like yet another product that nobody needs and that will just serve to create more garbage.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I hope that it works out.
Food expiration dates stamped on products right now are worthless. It would be handy to have some actual indication of food going bad.
Of course, I already have a pretty sensitive device to detect food spoilage: my nose. It works with a high degree of accuracy.
They should put expiration dates on clothing so we men will know when they go out of style. -- Garry Shandling
Or maybe when they need laundering? :-J
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
...not a diagnosis. "should be OK before" does not translate into "will be not OK after". check the food before wasting it!
There is no such thing as wine or tea having too many antioxidants. Wine becomes vinegar and dry tea becomes less potent, but either is still usable years after "expiration" (just don't drink it).
If you need a label to tell you your food is off, your food isn't off. Most foods are edible way past it's printed expiration date and if it's expired it turns weird colors and smells bad and we have very much evolved noses particularly sensitive to the byproducts of wasting food (which is why we notice sulfur and many acids (like vinegar) but cannot smell carbon monoxide or natural gas)
I don't know of any cosmetics that would go 'bad', they pretty much all contain pure alcohol or some other non-spoiling products, I'd figure they dry out and become unusable or in the worst cases grow molds (and thus weird smells) before they become dangerous.
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We really need a way to test if snow is not too yellow!
It's called my "nose". Now fuck off you software/trend weenies, go make something useful.
What next? A label that tells you what to eat, when you should eat it, and how you should eat it?
if it's expired it turns weird colors and smells
nah, it's not expired. It's just a newly improved favor! When you eat them, you'll get a chance to taste the new favor, pain! Not only that, but you food will also get new colors that color your life with a week full of sick leaves! Imagine the possibilities!
Great, a label that tells someone when a food *really* goes bad. Doesn't matter, my mother would still think it is good and make me eat it.
Hopefully these manufacturers are less greedy than drug companies with their pharmacuticles' expiry dates..
I am a scientist, and I work on chemical sensors.
Colorimetric sensor arrays are not new by any stretch of the imagination. There are several companies that make and sell them, many using "nanostructures" to boost something (usually the markup). We've been through food freshness, fruit ripeness, coffee roast detection, wine quality... Some of these are worth the $0.05 sensor and $1.00 labor required to package with the food, and some are not, but detecting these things is not a problem.
More and more, I'm seeing academic scientists demonstrate a lack of understanding of what real world problems and opportunities are. Someone in the academic grant backed research machine needs to have an eye on what's happened prior to recently published literature (and maybe look at what happens outside the literature too). 15 years seems to be the horizon of forgetfullness.
"I'm sorry, Dave, but I cannot allow you to eat this sandwich."
"Why not? It only arrived last Tuesday."
"It has expired, and I am programmed to destroy ALL expired foods."
"Sandwich look fine to me, its only the label that isn't green. And it's only yellow, not red or black. Perfectly safe to eat."
"I cannot allow you to eat the sandwich. No NetFresh 9000 has ever made an operational error."
"Aw, come on..."
Is this the "future" we want? NO!!
Marketers Create "Smart" Labels To Tell You When To Buy More Even If The Product Is Still Perfectly Fine.
But how bad does it have to taste to be bad?
Orange juice which taste .. weird? Like tart/yeasted?
Old cock lentils and vegetables which taste... creamy? I don't know what it taste really.
I notice the difference in taste and given the option wouldn't pick it over fresher food but what if one don't want to throw it or its the only option?
Avoid all that taste weird or eat it unless terrible?
Why do they need a smart-label for this?
Food => throw it away when it starts turning colors.
Cosmetics => throw it away when it STOPS turning colors.
I am not a sig.
Eat a couple bites of it and if it causes me to keel over and have to go to the emergency room, then it is probably not a good idea to eat the rest unless it is tasty.
But how bad does it have to taste to be bad?
Orange juice which taste .. weird? Like tart/yeasted?
Old cock lentils and vegetables which taste... creamy? I don't know what it taste really.
I notice the difference in taste and given the option wouldn't pick it over fresher food but what if one don't want to throw it or its the only option?
Avoid all that taste weird or eat it unless terrible?
When food is going bad, its taste will be different from what it used to be (or its original taste). If it starts going that way, dump it, period. If you keep eating it, then be ready to run to the bathroom more often and may end up in a hospital. Though, I found some people who can't distinguish between what the normal taste and what not...
Samsung has this new IoT fridge that has cameras inside it ostensibly to allow you to see what's in your fridge while you're out food shopping so you don't forget something or buy something you already have. Ok, but who else can see that video feed? Will you get e-mails telling you that you're eating too much junk food and not enough kale?
I've never had a problem deciding when to throw something away. We don't need planned obsolescence for food.
my nether regions.
There, I said it.
You don't need a smart label. Consumer products is to some degree guaranteed to be in good shape.
However, a store might need one. So instead of a label on each product(i.e giant box filled with meat), the box has a smart label on it.
So when the product has reached store, the store can tell if there has been any normal degradation.
Temperature, humidity, pressure, light, time.
What is useful here is that by design, things that get moved in large quantum will be exposed to moving: Delays, bad temporary storage, faults in moving equipment(i.e truck refrigerator), too hot on site.
It also has a real use for less perishable goods, such as candy, fabric, or other such things, allowing long term storage while also having a measure of degrading, allowing potential improvement of storage if somebody cared.
However, this is not useful by itself. Existing locations and stores, and storages, already have routines to deal with. Except if a thing is moved quite far. Lets say shipping between border nations, or even further: Over the ocean, and then trucked/trained across the nation, and then redistributed. So suddenly, such a thing can be used to tell if a shipment will be of premium value, or if its more reasonable enchant it by exposing it to a preservation method(i.e pickling, curing, smoking, etc)
When food is going bad, its taste will be different from what it used to be (or its original taste). If it starts going that way, dump it, period. If you keep eating it, then be ready to run to the bathroom more often and may end up in a hospital. Though, I found some people who can't distinguish between what the normal taste and what not...
Yeah. That's what I figure and how I'd feel "safe", then again I've eaten it even though it has tasted or smelled weird (and been out in the open for 24-48 hours) and I may not have noticed any actual problems from doing so later but that of course doesn't necessarily mean it's been just fine because of that ..
I guess what I mean was whatever it had to taste HORRIBLE or just "wrong", but yeah, if "wrong" is the answer then I've of course noticed it up "stomached" it.. which may have been stupid, but also throwing away food seem pretty stupid, then again throwing away stale (or whatever word) food maybe is smart ;D