ShareFish packaging with built-in nose
PhD candidate Jenneke Heising is working on packaging with a built-in nose that tells your smartphone how fresh fish is before you buy it.
Jenneke Heising’s research into three ways of measuring the freshness of packaged fish has been published in the Journal of Food Engineering. The three methods have one thing in common: they all involve measurements using a sensor in the packaging.
As the fish decays, various substances are released into the air inside the packaging subsequently dissolving in water in the sensor. Heising has investigated the practicality of using sensors that measure ammonia, acidity or conductivity.
The ammonia sensor does not appear to be very useful because the substance is only released once the fish is almost ‘off’. Acidity is unreliable because temperature appears to have too much influence on the readings. However, conductivity looks promising, Heising says.
Various substances released from the fish cause water to conduct electricity more easily. At differing temperatures, Heising investigated whether the sensor readings represented how fresh the fish was.
“We can see an effect very rapidly and that is just what we need. It seems we’ve found a good method. To confirm that, we’d also like to know in more detail which substances cause that effect. That’s what we’re investigating at the moment.”
Ultimately this research should lead to a tiny chip being packed with fish. The chip will indicate how long the product can be kept. “I'm thinking of a small piece of gel containing a chip that can be read with RFID”, tells the PhD candidate.
This will enable supermarkets and other retailers to judge the freshness of fish without opening the packaging. “And consumers should also be able to read the chip information with their smartphones.”
As the fish decays, various substances are released into the air inside the packaging subsequently dissolving in water in the sensor. Heising has investigated the practicality of using sensors that measure ammonia, acidity or conductivity.
The ammonia sensor does not appear to be very useful because the substance is only released once the fish is almost ‘off’. Acidity is unreliable because temperature appears to have too much influence on the readings. However, conductivity looks promising, Heising says.
Various substances released from the fish cause water to conduct electricity more easily. At differing temperatures, Heising investigated whether the sensor readings represented how fresh the fish was.
“We can see an effect very rapidly and that is just what we need. It seems we’ve found a good method. To confirm that, we’d also like to know in more detail which substances cause that effect. That’s what we’re investigating at the moment.”
Ultimately this research should lead to a tiny chip being packed with fish. The chip will indicate how long the product can be kept. “I'm thinking of a small piece of gel containing a chip that can be read with RFID”, tells the PhD candidate.
This will enable supermarkets and other retailers to judge the freshness of fish without opening the packaging. “And consumers should also be able to read the chip information with their smartphones.”