Applying electrical gas sensors to monitor food quality in households to reduce food waste.

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BlakBear have invented a novel paper-based printed electrical gas sensor (PEGS) that can detect food degradation by measuring the spoilage gases emitted by perishable foods like meat, fish and poultry. We will deploy our sensors in food-boxes to consumer households, to monitor and reduce unnecessary and avoidable food waste.Food waste is a major problem, both globally and in the UK. Over half of UK food waste is generated at home and 60% is deemed "avoidable". In 2015, UK households binned £13bn of food that could have been consumed, generating 19m tonnes of greenhouse gases (WRAP, 2015). There are multiple causes, but the major contributor is that consumers throw away 1/3 of food that is still edible based solely on use-by-dates, and consumers lose track of the perishable food in their fridge, discovering items "too late".Due to quarantine, the majority of the UK workforce is working from home, and subsequently consuming 3-meals a day in the household. By our estimates, this will increase potential food waste by 12-15% at a time of food shortages, due to a spike in demand.This project is a collaboration between BlakBear and OXO. We will distribute food-boxes to 50 households with our sensor incorporated. Over a 3-month period we will measure food waste in households using a digital scale, and test whether the BlakBear sensors' behavioural nudges change household behaviour. Through this project we aim to understand the effects of BlakBear sensors on food management and waste generation in the home. We will capture data on usage frequency, faults, sensitivity, efficiency, click-rate, time of day usage, and length of engagement. We will use this data to estimate the amount of food waste avoidance from high-value perishable food groups: meat, fish and poultry.