2013

Sipiläinen-Malm, Thea

A food quality sensor for monitoring freshness of food, preferably fresh-cut fruit and fresh fish, is produced in EU project SusFoFlex. The aim is to develop sustainable and intelligent packaging to improve the shelf life of food, monitor the quality of packaged food, and communicate the information to the user. When food spoils a number of volatile substances are released into the headspace of the packed product. The substances indicating sensory, chemical and microbiological spoilage for the target food products were identified. The sensor is designed to detect the target spoilage substances. Work on formulating the sensor is described. The sensor will be produced using low-cost printing technologies utilizing the roll-to-roll printing for higher volume. Printed components and RFID based near field communication will be used for communication. The sensor can be applied in consumer package systems indicating that the quality of the selected packaged food product has been maintained throughout the distribution chain. The research was started in EU project Nafispack "Natural Antimicrobials For Innovative and Safe Packaging", with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement no 212544. The development work continues in EU project SusFoFlex "Smart and sustainable food packaging utilizing flexible printed intelligence and materials technologies" funded by EU FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement no 289829. SusFoFlex is a three-year European project (January 2012-December 2014). Fifteen organizations from eight different nationalities (Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Turkey and Spain) are developing packaging technologies that will improve the shelf life of fresh food.