A DIGITAL TOOL FOR AVOIDING FOOD WASTAGE- NEW DEVELOPMENT

Consumers invariably face a dilemma regarding the quality of food within a sealed pack though the date marking on the label indicating the manufacturing date and expiry date give them some clue. Still millions of consumers believing that the food they buy must be as fresh as possible scout for packs with most recent manufacturing date and get assured that they are safe. However after taking home these purchased items may lie on the kitchen shelf some more days and some time not utilized till the expiry date is reached. Under such circumstances the critical question is whether these food items can still be safe or not? Many food pundits suggest that food packages past their expiry date should not be thrown away as most of them would be still good and safe for consumption. It is argued that after all expiry date is not an absolute figure but an indicative one for the consumers to be more cautious. Still many consumers are not willing to take risk with their lives and like to err on safer side not consuming them which end up in the garbage bin. Here is an innovation claimed to be of help to such consumers in taking a decision regarding how safe is the food inside a package with the help of electronic sensors printed on flexible packaging material used to fabricate the pouches.

To fight food waste, producers could include an electronic sensor circuit in their packaging to monitor the acidity level of the food, for example. The sensor circuit could be read with a scanner or with your mobile phone to show the freshness of your steak, or whether your frozen food was defrosted. Researcher Eugenio Cantatore of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e): "In principle that's all already possible, using standard silicon ICs. The only problem is they're too expensive. They easily cost ten cents. And that cost is too much for a one euro bag of crisps. We're now developing electronic devices that are made from plastic rather than silicon. The advantage is you can easily include these plastic sensors in plastic packaging." The plastic semiconductor can even be printed on all kinds of flexible surfaces, which makes it cheaper to use. And it makes sensor circuits costing less than one eurocent achievable.

How versatile this sensor might be, can be assessed only after wide scale testing of different food products and various packing materials under factory conditions. What criteria are used to design these sensors are not clear and due to different type of food spoilage one sensor may not fit for all of them. For example food is spoiled due to chemical changes caused with or without oxygen, undesirable textural changes, moisture ingress, microbiological changes etc and if really one can come up with a sensor that can monitor all these changes, there is nothing like that. But according to the inventors the above development may take at least 5 years before becoming a reality. If there is reasonable confidence that it will materialize consumers will not mind waiting for such a day for enabling him to buy packed foods with more confidence and trust. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

SOME CRITICAL ISSUES OF CURRENT CONCERN IN FOOD

The strength of the often maligned food industry lies in its power to innovate as per the demand of the consumer but a major segment of this sector, knowing fully well that what they are doing is not justifiable measured by any yardstick ignore consumer susceptibilities in pursuit of quick money at high rate of returns to their investment. But a time has come when the industry cannot ignore the consumer community any more and it can afford to refuse to change this attitude only at its own peril. It is a question of time before the governments all over the world start putting stringent restrictions to force the change in favor of the citizens. As yet another new year has dawned, many pundits warn that time is running out for the industry to mend its ways. The three most challenging issues that will confront the stake holders in this food "game" are considered to be cutting down food wastes, humane animal handling including raring them and more transparent labeling for better understanding of the products offered. Here is an observation by one of the critics regarding these issues.

"This year we saw the "end" of Twinkies, the explosion of caffeinated foods, and even DIY marshmallows. But in my opinion, three food issues of great importance finally made it into mainstream American consciousness in 2012, giving us hope for real change in the food system.  Food waste, humane animal treatment (including antibiotic use) and food labeling all took the leap and are now common household topics. And in all three cases, people are using the Internet and a host of apps to discuss these topics, to educate the public and to inspire each other to act, and buy, better."

Though it has been in the public realm most pundits agree that the food waste could be as high as 35-50% of production globally, precious little could be achieved in reducing such colossal waste, in spite of the ground reality that almost 30% of the world population go to bed hungry due to uncertain accessibility to basic foods. Similarly the failure of Californian voters to force the industry to improve the labels through more transparent disclosure does not lessen the gravity of the labeling crisis that is confronting the consumers. Reports after reports, the pitiable conditions in thousands of animal and poultry farms and the inhuman way they are handled and butchered can put to shame even the fiercest beast, namely the Lion which does not have any feeling towards its prey! These three problems will definitely come to the fore during the year 2013 and one can only hope that significant progress will be achieved in all these areas through the sustained efforts of consumer activists and animal protectionist organizations. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

WASTE, WASTE AND WASTE! THE GREAT FOOD PARADOX!

Food wastage is as old as human civilization and there has never been or never will be unanimity regarding the extent of loss at different stages of production, distribution and consumption. From time to time estimates (are they not guesstimates?) of food waste are aired in developing as well as the developed countries, though there is some credibility problem in completely trusting those figures. Latest to come out is a report which puts the wastage globally at a staggering 1.2 billion tons annually though the methodology used to decide on this awesome figure is not known. It is true that significant amount of food, whether raw, cooked or processed, is lost and the reasons for this unfortunate phenomenon can be many. While people in rich countries cause food wastage on their dining tables, those in poor countries incur losses in the field during production or defective storage or distribution inefficiencies. While the wastage of food is real, what the world does not know is how to cut down or prevent such losses. Here is a critique on this issue and after reading this one still does not get a clue as to how much is really lost and how that can be tackled.  

"The Institution of Mechanical Engineers estimated that between 30 and 50 per cent of food produced around the globe, or 1.2 to two billion tonnes each year, never reaches a human mouth. Vast quantities of produce from developing countries is lost due to poor storage or inefficient farming, while wasteful behavior by consumers and supermarkets means half of all food bought in the west is thrown away. As many as 30 per cent of UK vegetable crops are not even harvested because they do not meet retailers' stringent demands on appearance, which are based on what customers will accept. Supermarkets often reject entire crops of "perfectly edible" fruit and vegetables at farms because they have the wrong size or appearance, and are guilty of encouraging consumers to buy more than they can eat with promotions on perishable items, the report said. Use-by dates can also cause more waste because retailers use conservative estimates to avoid the threat of legal action, thereby encouraging customers to throw perfectly good food away before it has gone bad, it was claimed. Dr Tim Fox, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers said: "The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. "The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one free offers." The report called on governments to introduce better technology and food storage facilities in the developing world and introducing policies to reduce waste by supermarkets and consumers in countries like Britain".

Taking the case of India, both the so called experts as well as the governing class were routinely touting figures like 30-50% as food losses though there are not many reliable sources of information to verify the same. Even the Prime Minister of the country has recently pronounced that 30% of food in the country is wasted though he forgets that his government as well as the previous ones are responsible for this miserable state of affairs in the country. On one hand there is a glut of food grains coming from the farmlands of the country while there are millions of Indian citizens starving due to inaccessibility to affordable food. It was only last year that the Supreme Court pulled up the government for allowing food grains to rot in the open for want of efficient management and critical shortage of grain storage facilities in tune with the production increase from year to year. As for dining table wastage, the upper middle class and rich people only can be accused of such callousness while big caterers and restaurants do waste food due to reasons beyond their control. Education and sensitization of kids during early stages of their life can instill in them a sense of responsibility and awareness regarding the criminality of wasting food on the dining table. Food banks which are now being established in the western world are doing a yeoman service to at least arranging to lift foods from super markets and other retailers which are no more marketable but still edible for distribution to poor people. Field losses of raw foods can be avoided only if farmers employ modern preservation technologies and sound scientific storage practices.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com