Fight against food waste New food scanner detects remaining shelf life

Scanner determines if food can still be consumed

Is that still good or does it have to go? Millions of people ask themselves this question every day when they stand in front of the fridge. Out of uncertainty, many people opt to throw away and dispose of foods that are often still in their best condition. In a recent study, the German Environmental Foundation WWF Germany drew attention to the fact that in Germany alone, ten million tonnes of edible food still ends up in waste unnecessarily every year. A new pocket sized scanner could curb this trend. He recognizes whether a product is still stable or not.

The Fraunhofer Institute recently presented a small scanner that uses infrared light to detect the actual degree of freshness of food. The device sends the data to the smartphone, where it can be viewed through an app. For example, consumers and supermarket operators can check if food is spoiled or not. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft recently presented the scanner in a press release on the website of the institute.

Can you still eat that? If in doubt, many consumers tend to throw away. The new food scanner from the Fraunhofer Institute can answer this question. (Image: Julia / fotolia.com)

Scan instead of throwing away

The reasonably priced and portable scanner should ensure that fewer food items are thrown away in the future, which are still edible despite minor flaws or expired shelf life. Regardless of whether the goods are packaged or not - the so-called near-infrared sensor provides information about the degree of freshness that the scanned product has. In addition, the user receives information about how many and which ingredients the food contains.

Easy to use and high mobility

"Infrared light is sent precisely to the product to be examined, then the spectrum of the reflected light is measured," explains project manager Dr. Ing. Robin Gruna the operation of the procedure. On the basis of the absorbed wavelengths, the device can draw conclusions about the chemical composition of the goods. Near-infrared spectroscopy has long been used in the laboratory, adds physicist Julius Krause from the development team. What is new, however, is that this technology is now also cost-effective and mobile available.

More insight for consumers

As the developers report, the little scanner can do more than just determine its durability. For example, it also checks the authenticity of a product. "Food is often counterfeited, for example, salmon trout are sold as salmon," explains Krause. Even such information can be determined with the device. For example, it is also possible to recognize a jaded olive oil.

The limits of the scanner

The development team also points to the limitations of the new device. It currently only rates the product quality of homogeneous foods, ie foods that do not consist of several ingredients. Fruit, vegetables, unprocessed meat and yoghurt, for example, are no problem for the appliance. Products such as pizzas and other ready meals are not easily tested according to current research. In a further project, however, this will also be possible in the future by means of imaging spectroscopy, fusion approaches with color images and spectral sensors.

How does the scanner evaluate the food??

According to the development team, the scanner evaluates the infrared spectra through intelligent algorithms that look for patterns and regularities in the measured values. "Machine learning enables us to increase the potential for recognition," reports Gruna. The project manager explains this process using the example of minced meat. The scanner measures the infrared spectra of the minced meat and supplements the data with statistical methods for microbial spoilage. From this, the device can derive the remaining palatability of the meat. In extensive tests, the scanner has thus achieved a good correspondence with the actual germ count.

Analysis by mobile phone

For the end user, the scanner sends the data to the smartphone via Bluetooth. In the next step, the data is then evaluated by a cloud-based database and displayed via an app.

When will the device be available?

Already at the beginning of 2019, the device will be used in supermarkets. Subsequently, it will be tested how consumers accept the device. The project manager is already planning further areas of application. For example, one could use the system to distinguish and classify plastics, wood, textiles or minerals from each other. "The field of application of the device is versatile, it only needs to be trained accordingly," summarizes Gruna. (Vb)