Scientists designed color-changing carbon dot biosensors that can detect spoiled meat in sealed packages in real-time, just in case you don’t trust the sniff-test.

  • arcine@jlai.lu
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    37 minutes ago

    I have an extremely simple solution for this made-up problem : Just don’t eat meat 🤷🏻‍♀️

    What are you, a tiger ? No ? Then why do you put yourself through this, when it only makes you sicker the more you do it ?

    • alphabethunter@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      16 minutes ago

      Humans are not herbivores. There are a lot of good social and ethical reasons to not eat meat, this is not one of them.

  • Atlas_@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    9 hours ago

    They’re going to make this way too sensitive so people throw away even more food and effective prices get driven up. I guarantee it

  • cv_octavio@piefed.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    55
    ·
    17 hours ago

    Cool cool.

    leans forward

    Now, can it also not persist in the environment for 1000 years after the thing it was packaging has been unpackaged?

  • melfie@lemy.lol
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    14 hours ago

    I’ve had a number of occasions where I purchased meat and it was spoiled before the expiration date. At this point, I’m sick of putting my trust in big corporations and am trying to buy more foods produced locally.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      27 minutes ago

      No matter where you buy it, expiration dates are only a general guide, and more of a “date of manufacture” note than anything. We evolved to detect potential food that has gone bad. Trust your senses. Look and smell should be enough to know what’s actually gone bad (which is usually past the “expiration” date). You can use something like this as a better guide for when food will actually go bad, but, again, trust your senses.

  • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    18 hours ago

    As a negative control, they also prepared an identical sealed tray containing only a wet sponge and the biosensor, but no meat. They observed that the biosensors in the pork and mutton trays turned bright yellow after 24 hours, while the one in the beef tray took 36 hours. In contrast, the control biosensor showed no detectable change.

    That’s so cool, meat is still gross, but this is unambiguously a fantastic thing for humanity. If it’s actually used, I’d have to imagine the less reliable yet ass covering legal expiration date sticker will always be cheaper. Hope this becomes the new mandated standard, innovations are meaningless in the face of uncaring capitalism.

    • fonix232@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      26
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      18 hours ago

      No, actually. Spoiled here refers to the edibility by humans (aka the bacteria and toxic waste of said bacteria is below safe levels), and it’s no longer living tissue given the animal has been killed and butchered.

  • Auster@thebrainbin.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    19 hours ago

    If people don’t trust it either, there’s also an alternative, reading the package for the expected spoiling date.

    • village604@adultswim.fan
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      18 hours ago

      That date means nothing. It’s a best by date, not an expiration date. It’s just the last date you can get a refund if it goes bad.

      But I’ve had a gallon of milk last a whole month after the best by date.

    • tiramichu@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      18 hours ago

      The expiry date has been a necessary and useful tool, but these dots seem like they could be a good idea if they can actually sense when spoilage happens.

      Meat could have been exposed to bad conditions that makes it spoil before the expected date.

      But maybe even bigger is that the date is always going to be very much on the side of caution, so it might avoid waste where people tend to bin stuff as soon as the expiry hits, even though that food may still be perfectly good.

    • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      17 hours ago

      I’ve had Milk that lasts a week longer than the expiration date, and I’ve had meat spoil a week before its use-or-freeze-by date

    • kn33@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      17 hours ago

      I’ve had stuff spoil early, or last long past the date. Having a visual chemical indicator would be great.