Indian scientist develops tiny, cheap sensor to detect spoiled meals

By PTI

NEW DELHI: An Indian researcher within the US has developed a small and low-cost acidity sensor that may inform in real-time when meals has spoiled.

The versatile pH sensor is simply two millimetres in size and 10 millimetres huge, making it attainable to include the system into present meals packaging strategies, comparable to plastic wrapping.

Industries sometimes use a lot bulkier metres — roughly one inch lengthy by 5 inches tall — to measure pH ranges or how acidic or primary the meals is, so they don’t seem to be appropriate to be included in each package deal of meals to observe its freshness in real-time.

“The pH sensors we developed work like a small wireless radio-frequency identification device — similar to what you find inside your luggage tag after it has been checked at airports,” stated Khengdauliu Chawang, a PhD scholar at Southern Methodist University in Texas, US, who created the system.

“Every time a food package with our device passes a checkpoint, such as shipping logistics centres, harbours, gates or supermarkets’ entrances, they could get scanned and the data could be sent back to a server tracking their pH levels,” Chawang stated in an announcement by the college.

Such configuration, Chwang stated, would enable steady pH monitoring and precisely detect freshness limits alongside all the journey — from farms to customers’ homes.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, roughly 1.3 billion metric tonnes of meals produced world wide go to waste yearly.

Creating the system was private for Chawang, who’s initially from Nagaland the place the inhabitants depends closely on agricultural crops.

“Food waste in Nagaland means undernourished children and extra fieldwork for the elderly to compensate for the loss,” Chawang stated.

“The need to prevent food waste motivated me to think of a device that is not expensive or labour-intensive to develop, is disposable and can detect freshness levels,” the researcher defined.

Not solely does meals waste contribute to meals insecurity and misplaced income for meals producers, however meals wastage can be unhealthy for the surroundings, the researcher famous. Food freshness stage is instantly correlated to pH ranges, Chawang defined.

For instance, meals with a pH stage larger than the conventional vary signifies spoiled meals, as fungi and micro organism thrive in high-pH environments.

Sudden pH adjustments in meals storage throughout manufacturing and delivery can point out attainable meals spoilage.

The pH stage is measured by the focus of hydrogen ions present in a substance or answer. The newest pH sensor has efficiently been examined on meals objects like fish, fruits, milk and honey, Chawang stated.

The sensor is made with a really small quantity of biocompatible supplies and makes use of printing applied sciences on versatile movies.

“The entire process is similar to printing newspapers. The processing does not require expensive equipment or a semiconductor cleanroom environment. Thus, the costs are low and make the sensor disposable,” stated JC Chiao, a professor at SMU, who helped within the improvement of the system.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Big Ideas competitors on the 2022 IEEE Sensors Conference honoured Chawang with the Best Women-owned Business Pitch for her invention, the college added.

NEW DELHI: An Indian researcher within the US has developed a small and low-cost acidity sensor that may inform in real-time when meals has spoiled.

The versatile pH sensor is simply two millimetres in size and 10 millimetres huge, making it attainable to include the system into present meals packaging strategies, comparable to plastic wrapping.

Industries sometimes use a lot bulkier metres — roughly one inch lengthy by 5 inches tall — to measure pH ranges or how acidic or primary the meals is, so they don’t seem to be appropriate to be included in each package deal of meals to observe its freshness in real-time.googletag.cmd.push(operate() googletag.show(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2′); );

“The pH sensors we developed work like a small wireless radio-frequency identification device — similar to what you find inside your luggage tag after it has been checked at airports,” stated Khengdauliu Chawang, a PhD scholar at Southern Methodist University in Texas, US, who created the system.

“Every time a food package with our device passes a checkpoint, such as shipping logistics centres, harbours, gates or supermarkets’ entrances, they could get scanned and the data could be sent back to a server tracking their pH levels,” Chawang stated in an announcement by the college.

Such configuration, Chwang stated, would enable steady pH monitoring and precisely detect freshness limits alongside all the journey — from farms to customers’ homes.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, roughly 1.3 billion metric tonnes of meals produced world wide go to waste yearly.

Creating the system was private for Chawang, who’s initially from Nagaland the place the inhabitants depends closely on agricultural crops.

“Food waste in Nagaland means undernourished children and extra fieldwork for the elderly to compensate for the loss,” Chawang stated.

“The need to prevent food waste motivated me to think of a device that is not expensive or labour-intensive to develop, is disposable and can detect freshness levels,” the researcher defined.

Not solely does meals waste contribute to meals insecurity and misplaced income for meals producers, however meals wastage can be unhealthy for the surroundings, the researcher famous. Food freshness stage is instantly correlated to pH ranges, Chawang defined.

For instance, meals with a pH stage larger than the conventional vary signifies spoiled meals, as fungi and micro organism thrive in high-pH environments.

Sudden pH adjustments in meals storage throughout manufacturing and delivery can point out attainable meals spoilage.

The pH stage is measured by the focus of hydrogen ions present in a substance or answer. The newest pH sensor has efficiently been examined on meals objects like fish, fruits, milk and honey, Chawang stated.

The sensor is made with a really small quantity of biocompatible supplies and makes use of printing applied sciences on versatile movies.

“The entire process is similar to printing newspapers. The processing does not require expensive equipment or a semiconductor cleanroom environment. Thus, the costs are low and make the sensor disposable,” stated JC Chiao, a professor at SMU, who helped within the improvement of the system.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Big Ideas competitors on the 2022 IEEE Sensors Conference honoured Chawang with the Best Women-owned Business Pitch for her invention, the college added.