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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

tupperware

This Startup Is Making A Food Container That Detects How Much Time is Left Before Your Food Spoils

What if food labels could tell you in real time if your food has gone bad?

That’s the vision of a UK-based startup that has developed a set of smart food labels to determine food freshness. The labels do this via an embedded sensor that detects the ammonia levels being produced by the food.

As described by packaging trade publication Packaging World, the smart labeling developed by BlakBear has “two electrodes printed on it as well as an embedded RFID chip.” As food spoils, ammonia is released and the gas is “absorbed into the paper’s cellulose fibers and then dissociates into ions. The electrodes sense and measure the ionic conductivity present in the layer of water that is already naturally present in the paper’s fibers to determine the shelf life of the product.”

Most of us can detect food spoilage by smelling the ammonia emitted as food decomposes, but by the time that happens, it’s usually too late to save the item. According to one of the company’s founders, BlakBear’s sensors are up to 100 times more sensitive than the human nose when it comes to detecting spoilage.

Smart labeling that can detect food freshness is not new. I wrote about a group of researchers from China’s Nanjing University and the University of Texas at Austin in 2018 that were developing a similar technology that would detect biogenic amines (BAs) and communicate spoilage using an embedded NFC chip.

Amazon has also been looking at technology that could detect food spoilage. Back in 2017, I wrote about a patent the company had filed for similar technology that could go into refrigerators and detect the gas emitted as food decomposed.

BlakBear is also interested in bringing this type of technology into the home, only instead of building into an appliance, they are working on a smart food container. The company is creating a system called HoneyBox that incorporates the freshness sensor and then communicates with an app via Bluetooth. The device will send reminders and act as a countdown clock on long the food will be edible.

While BlakBear isn’t saying when the product will be into market, the company is currently evaluating consumer attitudes around potential features and pricing for HoneyBox.

And from the looks of it, HoneyBox isn’t the only product the company has in the works. According to BlakBear’s CEO Max Grell, the company is also working on another bear-themed piece of hardware called BearCub that they are trialing with retailers. BearCub, according to Grell, would also be available to use in consumer homes.

Hopefully, both will be available soon, as I think there’s a huge opportunity for better food management systems that can help us reduce food waste. I’ve long wondered why home food storage has been stuck in time and why the incumbents don’t bring those cheap plastic containers into the future (not that they aren’t trying). Sure, there’s been some small progress by some startups (I’m still waiting for my Silo), but not nearly as much as there should be.

With New Contest, Tupperware Looks To Discover The Future of Food Containers

Every couple months, I go into my fridge and throw out all the forgotten and fuzzy food.

It’s a guilt-inducing process – as it should be – and every time I search for those containers with festering science experiments inside I think there has to be a better way.

Of course, there is an obvious one – buy less, eat what I have – but I am also left thinking about how someday, technology will assist me in reducing my and my family’s food waste.

As it turns out, food container giant Tupperware is thinking the same thing.

That’s because they’ve just launched a design crowdsourcing contest to find a way to use IoT technology to create a better food container. The contest, which will give away a total $10 thousand in prizes to the top three entries, is being run in partnership with Giddy, the crowdsourced design and ideation startup that spun out of the same folks within GE who brought us FirstBuild.

Tupperware’s wish list of considerations for this new product is long. The contest guidelines (pdf) not only ask for designs that would create a product that is “easy to use but technically advanced” and “approachable but have features complex enough to provide real value”, but also “non-disposable and meant to be used again, again and again” and “affordable enough for the product to be within the budget of most consumers.”

In other words, the dream product. That’s not all that surprising – it is a design contest for a new and better food container after all – but what’s interesting is the emphasis the contest puts on products that are easy-to-use for the “Silver generation (55+).” One of the two personas described include a grandma named Catherine who, among other things, is “adventurous and enjoys being the first in her circle of friends to try new technologies” and is “tech-savvy, using social media and the internet frequently.”

Bottom line:  Tupperware wants to create the product of the future while not alienating older users who likely make up a big chunk of their customer base.

Tupperware’s not alone in looking for out of the box thinking in food containers. The competition for new ideas is heating up as startups like Silo and Ovie explore using IoT technology in new ways, while big players like Samsung and Amazon are investigating ways to use tech to better understand what’s in the fridge.

The contest, which goes through January 8th, could help Tupperware get some innovative new ideas for the future. However, if you’re hoping to get a peek at some of the new ideas generated by the contest, you’re out of luck: Unlike past contests run by Giddy, Tupperware wants to keep all the entries secret.

I can’t really blame them. It’s getting competitive out there.