New packaging to alert shoppers to fresh fish.
Smart shoppers with a good eye for colour can now guarantee themselves a fresh catch of fish, scientists revealed today.
New packaging containing a sensor that changes colour when seafood spoils has been designed to hit supermarket shelves.
The sensor responds to the presence of basic volatiles responsible for the characteristic rotten fish odour.
Containing a pH sensitive dye, it changes colour fromyellow to orange/red telling customers if pre-packed fish products are spoiled.
The device, designed by a team of Dublin based researchers, has already been tested in collaboration with the country’s biggest seafood producer Oceanpath Ltd, Howth, and supermarket Superquinn.
Results have shown that the sensor colour change indicates the end of product shelf life, changes in freshness parameters and growth in microbial population.
Although the colour change can be seen with the naked eye, a low-cost portable colour scanner has also been developed to enhance colour change under everyday conditions.
