Researchers at the National Research Council of Science & Technology in Korea have developed a sticker that easily shows when the temperature in cold chain storage is too high, indicating that meat has spoiled.
When the sticker is exposed to room temperatures higher than 50 ℉, an image featuring the temperature exposure history and time appears.
“Improperly stored perishable foods can cause various diseases” Dr. Sejin Choi from KRIST said. “Conventional time temperature indicators are limited to the practical application, but our innovative approach can provide accountable temperature history with reasonable price. We hope for this device to be utilized for all products requiring low-temperature supply to prevent unfortunate and unexpected accidents.”
Cold chain storage failure
It can be difficult to discern whether refrigerated or frozen food has gone bad. Certain forms of bacteria do not affect the taste or smell of foods. Additionally, food that has thawed and refrozen can often look the same as food that remains at a constant temperature.
The cold chain safety sticker could make it easier to know when foods are exposed to higher temperatures, preventing food poisoning and keeping food safe.
Nanofiber film
The new safety sticker is made of nanofiber film. At low temperatures, the film forms a stable structure that appears opaque. At room temperature, the thin threads that make up the nanofiber structure melt and become entangled, allowing light to transmit through the film.
This means that the sticker, when exposed to higher than normal temperatures, becomes transparent and shows the image underneath the nanofiber film. At this point, users will know when meat or other perishables stored at cool temperatures have spoiled.
“This sticker can warn the customers about possibility of foods degradation. Moreover, the time period of transparency change can be easily tuned from 30 minutes to 24 hours by controlling the thickness of the film, which enables to apply to a wide range of foods with different spoilage rates,” Choi explained.
The research was published in the journal Advanced Materials.
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