We’ve heard murmurings about the technology. Now, science has put it into a food packaging material. Future plastic wrap ‘spots’ early signs of spoilage and displays them for all to see…
It looks just like regular stretch wrap. Works like regular stretch wrap. Keeps food fresh and free of contamination like regular stretch wrap., But there’s more…
Anti-microbial
The new clear food wrap has built-in anti-microbial properties which should extend shelf life of perishables – particularly meat, which has evolved in a couple of years from an expense to an investment.
But there’s STILL more…
The new wrap, currently designated NSSAW, is laced with ‘nanostructured (gold-and silver-based) SERS sensors’ that can detect ‘nutritional components, pesticides, and spoilage chemistry’. The wrap changes colour to signal the presence of spoilage or toxicity.
“In cold-chain logistics and storage, the wrapper can help distributors decide when to ship and sell food by continuously tracking freshness and spoilage chemistry,” Dr. Ji-Hwan Ha, an associate pro-fessor at Hanbat National University in South Korea, and author of the study, shared in a statement.
“In retail smart packaging, its stretchable, conformal, and biocompatible nature enables non-des-tructive, on-package checks of quality and nutrition markers — without any damage to food — sup-porting point-of-sale quality automation and transparent date labeling. Thus, the real-world uses of our technology span the entire farm-to-fork chain.”
Not the only game in town
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore are also working on a new food film that gives a visible warning of spoilage.
It’s described as, a ‘plant-based, biodegradable film infused with natural antibacterial ingredients, such as thyme oil. […] As freshness declines, the film shifts from green to red…’
My take
First… Dare I predict that there will be a VHS-Beta-like dominance war between the Korean and Chinese wraps? Alas… We’ll have to wait as long as 10 years to find out. That’s how long it’s expected the new products to be certified safe for sale to the public…
~ Maggie J.