Stickers aren’t just for price tags anymore.
Researchers from Tufts University have shown that high-tech silk stickers may soon be used to tell the consumer when food is no longer edible.
“We see a huge market for food,” researcher Hu “Tiger” Tao, said to Co.Exist. “People are always looking forward to some kind of sensor that’s easy to use and gives you information about spoilage.”
According to the piece put out in Advanced Materials, the silk stickers detect a product’s physical and chemical changes. Fastcoexist says that the stickers act similarly to RFID tags, which means that cell phones could be used to scan the stickers to learn the results. The stickers were tested on apples, bananas, eggs and even in milk and cheese. Plus, since they are made completely from proteins, the stickers are edible.
These Tufts researchers aren’t the only ones coming up with food-sensor stickers. One Chinese news outlet recently reported that Chinese researchers have developed color-coded tags that gradually changes to demonstrate food spoilage.
“In our configuration, red, or reddish orange, would mean fresh,” said lead researcher of the study at Peking University, Dr. Chao Zhang, to CTVNews.ca.
With the colors ranging across the spectrum, these sensors show how fresh food is. Check out the video below.
These stickers may just be smarter than your senses, and may save your stomach faster than your nose ever could.
FEATURED PHOTO: FastCoExist.com
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