Author: Victoria Aly
Time for reading: ~2
minutes
Last Updated:
August 08, 2022
In this article, learn more about Is The Food Spoiled - A New Device Will Show Us. Food expiration labels may soon become obsolete..
There are foods that are very difficult to find out that they are no longer fit for consumption . Even in cases where there is no change in their color or aroma, they may already be inhabited by dangerous bacteria and their toxins in amounts where they would quickly cause infection or food poisoning .
Exactly the period in which the food does not yet show visible signs that it is spoiled, and when we are most easily deceived that it is still fresh, we will be able to determine with the help of a new device developed by scientists in Canada. A McMaster University team is developing a sticker that can quickly detect the presence of dangerous bacteria in food and warn that it is unfit for consumption.
The innovative device is sensitive to the presence of the most common bacteria that grow on food and lead to food poisoning. These are the bacteria of the genus Salmonella and genus Escherichia , and especially E . inches . Considering the presence of even a small number of these bacteria on food, the device sends a signal to a smartphone or other digital device as a warning measure.
The development of such a device is viewed with a very good eye in several aspects. It will be able to be placed on the packaging of each type of processed food at the factory. The data it provides are in real time and can be considered absolutely reliable for the current state of each product prepared for consumption.
The tendency is for this type of stickers to change the current standard for determining the suitability of food products. The new devices are expected to eliminate the need to mark the shelf life of food on the packaging. The fact is that this is a very subjective measure, which often observes consumers about the quality of food and does not give a realistic assessment of whether it is suitable for safe consumption.
Every year, an average of 1 in 10 people in the world fall victim to some type of food poisoning. The consequences vary in severity and in some cases require long-term treatment, especially in childhood. The main cause of food poisoning is the pathogenic bacteria with which the food has been infected and the inability to detect their presence before consumption.
In some cases, the toxins that these bacteria have excreted in food are so large that the symptoms of food poisoning occur only a few minutes after consuming the contaminated food. According to scientists from the Canadian team, the risk of intoxication after eating contaminated and unfit food will soon be reduced to a minimum.
Scientists note another potential benefit of the innovative devices they are developing. They will help to preserve foods that are thrown away only because of doubts about their suitability for consumption, if the new devices show that they are not actually contaminated with dangerous bacteria . This will reduce the severity of the ever-growing problem of food waste worldwide.