Printable Smart Labels Tell You When the Milk's Gone Bad 68
chicksdaddy writes "Security Ledger brings news that the Norwegian firm, ThinFilm has successfully tested a printable electronics component that it claims is the first, fully-functional 'smart' label. The company claims its disposable Smart Sensor Label can track the temperature of perishable goods and is a 'complete closed system built from printed and organic electronics.' Smart Sensor is being marketed to pharmaceutical makers as a way to keep temperature-sensitive drugs and to food wholesalers, which can track the temperature their product is kept at throughout the supply chain. When 'critical temperature thresholds are reached, the Smart Sensor label will change to indicate that using an integrated display driver. Such labels could make it possible to easily monitor the condition of large quantities of product, keeping it safe and effective and preventing perfectly usable products from being destroyed. But the possible applications of printable electronics are huge: they can be produced for a fraction of the cost of comparable technologies because they don't need to be assembled. And, because they're flexible and paper-like, they can be deployed pretty much anywhere you can stick a label — something ThinFilm's CEO says could provide an extensible platform for the much-ballyhooed 'Internet of Things.'"
SO... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:SO... (Score:4, Funny)
What were people using before that?
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What were people using before that?
They were too busy figuring out which mushrooms and berries were deadly poison to worry about spoiled milk.
Lothar: Hey, the milk smells funny again, what's left to eat? ... *Holds nose* *Chugs spoiled milk*
Gunthar: All that's left are these berries that Motan gathered last week.
Lothar: Didn't Motan just die the other day?
Gunthar: Yup, spewing from both ends.
Lothar:
*Later*
Lotar: Well, that spoiled milk was so spoiled it turned into... something interesting. Let's call it Yogurt!
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I don't know, but I think that was when they invented this joke:
"My great-granddad has no nose."
"How does he smell?"
"Awful"
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But you can't patent the human nose (only possibly sections of the genetic sequence that create it).
At least this is a temperature sensor it appears, and does not detect spoiled milk that is simply too old.
I'd feel bad if we've degenerated to a point where people need to use a color-coded label because they couldn't read expiration dates.
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The settings you have on your fridge determine how long it will last.
Funny, in my house, its whether the kids have friends over or not that determines how ong it will last. I buy milk 12-16 liters at a time and it never comes within a mile of going bad.
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But you can't patent the human nose (only possibly sections of the genetic sequence that create it).
At least this is a temperature sensor it appears, and does not detect spoiled milk that is simply too old.
I'd feel bad if we've degenerated to a point where people need to use a color-coded label because they couldn't read expiration dates.
Whoever tries to patent gene sequences ain't worth the whoopie that gave them theirs... Now, us old folks might have a bit of trouble reading expiration dates sometimes I don't want to make it all the way back to the bedside just to put my teeth back in. And another thing: I refuse the "too old" labeling! My memories not what it used to be, but I've got know-how -- Experience. I've been degenerating longer than most of those labelers have been degenerates trying to push their newfangled "solutions" and
Re:SO... (Score:5, Funny)
My supermarket will stick new ones on the label as needed.
They already do that for meat...
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Mine does too, but it's a lower price on the sticker. I'll take my chances for $3 off!
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Which would be hand for AFTER you bought it, took it home and opened it....
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This invention will not detect bad milk. It does not detect bacterial overgrowth, nor pH changes, nor the breakdown of proteins.
"Warn When The Milkâ(TM)s Gone Bad" is hyperbole and disingenuous as a title, except that it does say "warn" instead of "actually detect and tell you for sure".
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No production cost
Well, you gotta factor in the cost of paying for meals, transportation, gifts, entertainment and so on. And don't forget about failed ventures -- many investments turn bad and take time to recoup. If you finally make a successful investment, there's the possible expense of a wedding ring and cermony, then after a 9-month waiting period, there are 18 years spent developing it into self-sufficient state ... that's a pretty big production cost if you ask me!
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Good for you, but I can't necessarily tell the difference by smelling. I have to drink it, by which time I've drank bad milk. I think to would be helpful if I could avoid that situation.
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Because when you have 2,000 gallons of milk in separate little cartons, your nose gets tired. And you've just opened 2,000 gallons of what will presumably end up as someone else's milk...with a safety seal, ensuring no one else has sniffed it.
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For 2,000 years the human nose (standard equipment on most humans) was not the correct way to detect foul and spoiled milk?
Most humans, yes. My nose is bad enough at detecting spoiled milk that the first thing I notice is the milk turning solid when I warm it, so I welcome this development.
100 years not 2000 (Score:2)
Milk doesn't go "bad" if it was collected and handled in a native way. The natural microbiology in it would start consuming the sugars and turn it "sour" in a tasty way.
Only with modern mechanical pasteurized and homogenized milk do you have this problem.
The milk is completely sterilized so is open to any microbiology taking over.
I AM ANOSMIC (Score:2)
You insensitive clod!
----
No really, I am anosmic, (complete inability to smell)
I would love things like these.
Maybe a portable detector signalling foul odours, coz if you baked me a cake literally full of shit, I wouldn't know.
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Well, the purpose of this label is not to detect sour milk, but to detect when conditions may lead to premature souring of the milk. Like say the reefer unit conks out midway through the Midwest. If caught early, the load might be salvageable. But if not, then the entire load
Prior art (Score:2)
The 80s called, they want their mood ring back..
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Re:Prior art (Score:4, Informative)
70s not the 80s.
Along with the Pet Rock.
Not an entirely new concept, seen since 1980s. (Score:3)
There have been products that have liquid crystal foil labels that change color or have a rising bar to show temperature, similar to aquariums that have a stick-on temperature strip in a corner. I believe that beer with a can that tells you when it's Rocky Mountain cold uses that sort of technology but I don't know for sure.
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but the labor costs of opening and smelling all the milk will be rather high
This is something a politician should do. Is it possible to make a label that warns you when a politician goes bad?
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Could be abused (Score:2)
Sounds like a good idea, but you're competing against a plain old "best before x/x/x" text.
I fear that these smart labels could be too sensitive, and give a false report I expired food. Thus telling me I need to throw away perfectly good food and buy more.
There's very little incentive to NOT make them too sensitive.
Re:Could be abused (Score:4, Insightful)
The only use of these is for internal verification in the supply chain that storage parameters haven't been breached.
It's the same reason you should thump and break all shock sensors on receipt of sensitive equipment. You need to verify that the sensor works. If it doesn't break at listed load, then you don't know if the load received that shock and it didn't break.
Re: (Score:1)
+1. People need to check for false negatives, and not just assume a true negative.
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Will it work on my wife? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Will it work on my wife? (Score:5, Funny)
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Hey! I love my wife! *Hugs gallon of milk form 1982*
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And vaccines: Vaccine vial monitor [wikipedia.org]. There are also logging devices to go with larger collections of vaccines to record their temperature exposure (e.g. to isolate weaknesses in the cold chain). If these disposable tags record a history I guess they might replace the larger logging devices.
Good for Pharmacology/Clinicians (Score:1)
I can see how this could be very very useful in pharmacology, or for clinical trials, or for clinicians storing drugs that either require rigourous temperature controls or otherwise spoil under certain conditions or length of time. It will be a useful tool to their existing arsenal of temperature monitoring etc.
But for Milk or any other food product, seriously? How stupid do people have to be they need a label to tell them their lumpy milk has gone off or their fizzy coleslaw is past its best or the mouldy
Old Hat in the Pharma industry (Score:2)
The Pharma industry has been using specially treated temerature indicators in their packaging to note exceptional/out-of-range temperatures for pharmaceuticals in transit, llike these tempstrips:
Source [tempstrips.com]
The milk examle use is silly - the risk of milk spoiling is low, but the
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But the milk example isn't silly. Ok, from the farm/factory, you send x gallons of milk on a truck somewhere else. You do many, many loads of this all the time, and gas costs a lot. Sure, finding out that a few gallons every load has gone bad even before it got on the truck is trivial, as it will be found somewhere in the chain, but you've just saved:
1) some fraction of shipping costs
2) saved the supermarket money in refunded milk
3) saved the customer the experie
Forget Milk... What about Beer? (Score:4, Interesting)
What is desperately needed is a sticker to let you know if your beer has ever been permitted to sit on a loading dock too long, god forbid it might sit in the sun. Forget milk, we need to use this technology to win the war on skunky beer.
cost effectiveness (Score:2)
how is this less expensive than just placing a single thermometer on each shelf? seriously, it's a interesting tech but making temperature labels is solving a non-problem.
i think they would be better off changing to using their tech in applications where sensors can be put on people's skin like temporary tattoos to replace bulky systems. a heartrate monitor would be good place to start. though this could be very useful for tracking both location and status of hospital patients or the residents of homes f
Why complain? (Score:1)
TTIs (heh) (Score:3)
There are already time-temperature indicators [wikipedia.org], which are low-cost, (usually) non-electronic devices affixed to perishable products to check whether they've remained in the appropriate range, and how long they were out of that range. Those are what this new tech is competing with, not the temperature-sensitive LCD strips you see on aquariums.
Food Price Increase (Score:2)
One more way to increase the price of food with no actual improvement. This also means more money goes to middlemen rather than to the farmer.
Alternative, use your nose and good sense - Not available everywhere.