Non-destructive wireless monitoring of food quality using near zero-cost printed electrical gas sensors

食物浪费是一个巨大的问题。仅在英国，我们每年就扔掉730万吨食物。这相当于130亿GB。这座堆积如山的食物中有440万吨是完全可以食用的。在不损害食品安全的情况下减少食物浪费是食品标准局的主要承诺。食品标准局主席希瑟·汉考克最近对发布关于设定产品保质期的指南表示欢迎，并解释了哪些因素会影响食品的保质期。FSA的这一干预表明了他们对防止安全食品浪费的倡议的支持和接受。保质期表明超市应该在什么时候停止销售食品。在肉和鱼等易腐烂的食物中添加保质期是为了表明这些食物需要在这个日期之前食用，因为超过这个日期可能会对健康有害。(欧盟)第1169/2011号条例规定了使用截止日期。大多数保质期和保质期是基于一次性实验室细菌测试和微生物模型的结果。食品行业对产品“寿命”采取了故障安全政策，这是可以理解的，因为在产品的整个生命周期中，如何处理产品存在多个变量。目前还没有商业上可用的技术来测量食品包装的腐烂程度，这意味着目前几乎没有以技术为主导的解决方案来解决和减少这个问题。鉴于英国50%的食物来自国外，减少食物浪费和更有效地管理资源对于建立具有弹性的食物供应至关重要。BlakBear有限公司开发了新的化学传感器、电子设备和软件，帮助世界感受、理解和改善自己。在这个项目中，我们计划开发用于鱼和肉类产品的超低成本包装传感器，以减少浪费和预防变质食品引起的食源性疾病。该项目财团由三个合作伙伴组成：BlakBear Ltd(商业领导)、Imperial College(学术)和Coveris Flexible Gainsborough Ltd(商业合作伙伴)。

Food waste is a huge problem. In the UK alone we throw away 7.3 million tonnes of food each year. This equates to £13 billion. 4.4 million tonnes of this wasted food mountain was perfectly edible.Reducing food waste, without any compromise to the safety of food, is a major commitment at the Food Standards Agency. Heather Hancock, Chairman of the Food Standards Agency has recently welcomed the publication of guidance on setting product shelf life, and explaining what factors affect the expiry date of a food product. This intervention by the FSA indicates their support and receptiveness to initiatives which prevent safe food from going to waste.Sell-by dates indicate when the supermarket should remove the food from sale. Use-by dates are added to perishable foods such as meat and fish to indicate that the food needs to be eaten by this date, as it could prove harmful to health past this date. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 covers the use of use-by dates. Most sell-by and use-by dates are based on the results of one-off laboratory bacteria tests and microbial modelling. The food industry has understandably adopted a fail-safe policy on product "life", due to the multiple variables on how the item will be handled through its life-cycle.There is no incumbent technology commercially available for measuring spoilage in food packaging, meaning that there are currently few technology-led solutions to tackle and reduce this problem. Given the fact that the UK sources 50% of its food from abroad, reducing food waste and managing resources more efficiently are of paramount importance for building a resilient food supply.BlakBear Ltd build new chemical sensors, electronics and software to help the world feel, understand and improve itself. In this project, we plan to develop ultra-low cost packaging sensors for fish and meat products, to reduce waste and prevent foodborne diseases arising from spoiled foods.The project consortium is made up of three partners: BlakBear Ltd (Business Lead), Imperial College (Academic) and Coveris Flexibles Gainsborough Ltd (Commercial Partner).