Food that Glows??
Many of us have eaten questionable food, whether it be out and about or at home. I know for me personally, I probably have eaten food that was in the fridge for an unknown amount of time. It’s hard to tell sometimes if it’s safe to eat, and I don’t like food going to waste. Obviously, physical signs such as mold, or a gut-wrenching smell can let you know that the substance should definitely not be consumed. In addition, there have been times when I have eaten I thought was perfectly good food, but would result in stomach aches, or worse.
Chemical engineers at McMaster University in Canada have developed a plastic film that would glow when it comes in contact with E.coli, either directly with the E.coli cells, or indirectly with molecules secreted by E.coli.The newly developed film is covered in molecules that it would glow, indicating the the food is not safe to eat.
At the moment, the small sensor on the film that would glow can only be seen with an ultraviolet lamp or with a fluorescence scanner, which is unfortunate. However, smartphone attachments that are able to detect it have been developed by other scientists, which is exciting news. Perhaps in the near future, everyone will be able to have this technology available to check food before consuming it.
Future development may include making films that would be able to detect and glow in response to other bacteria, like Salmonella. The invention of the glowing film is promising, as it has the potential to prevent people from consuming infected food, that would otherwise cause illnesses or harm to the body.
Source: H. Yousefi et al. Sentinel wraps: Real-time monitoring of food contamination by printing DNAzyme probes on food packaging. ACS Nano. Published online April 6, 2018. doi:10.1021/acsnano.7b08010.
Posted by: Angelina Weng (3)
Wow, this was definitely interesting. I had never heard of this before until now. This can be useful when shopping for meat and for preparing food.
ReplyDelete-Trung Le (2)
This is such a cool concept. I know I always feel bad throwing out food when I see it has expired. We, as americans, are so wasteful with food and this could be a good solution to reducing our wasteful habits.
ReplyDelete- Zoe Israel
This invention is definitely useful in more than one aspect. It's main goal is to reduce food borne illnesses, but I think it'll be able to start a reaction of some sort. If we are more aware of how quickly food could go bad, then we can be more mindful when buying food, perhaps not in bulk knowing that some of it will go bad.
Delete- Angelina Weng (3)
This idea is good in theory but I feel as though its unrealistic due to the need for a black light. This is like one of those things you would see in informercials which sort of make sense but you can still function completely without. Maybe use in a large restaurant kitchen would be useful.
ReplyDelete-Katherine Patota (3)
I agree that the plastic film sounds good in theory. I think that it's a great start to solving food borne illnesses and hopefully they'll continue to develop it to be more accessible and easier for the general public. I'm not sure how far in the future this would be, but it's good to know that there are currently being steps made.
Delete-Angelina Weng (3)