Think That Meat Has Gone Bad? New Sensor Can Tell You For Sure

One day, your food might be able to tell you when it’s going bad. Photo: Sara Remington

Imagine a world in which you don’t have to consult the Internet to ascertain if a week-old turkey cutlet is still fit for consumption. Or worse, sniff it.

To prevent these scenarios, chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a tiny sensor that can detect gases released by rotting meat. And by tiny, we mean tiny: the sensors can be as minuscule as 25 by 8 millimeters. So long as it’s in close proximity with the meat, it can detect the gases it emits.

“Imagine that your fridge could alert you that you need to cook something in the next day or throw it out, rather than forgetting about it and throwing it away,” MIT chemistry professor Timothy Swager told Yahoo Food over email. The technology could help reduce food poisoning and food waste, he said, adding that its uses may not stop there.

“We envision that these sensors could be in all meat and food packaging,” Swager wrote. “We also can imagine consumer devices wherein you can monitor your produce and meat at home. This can be in devices that interface with the fridge and handheld devices that you can check the freshness directly before cooking.”

The sensor is actually a “carbon nanotube” that detects gases emitted by rotting meat. Photo: MIT

The technology has been a long time in the making, Swager said. He’s worked on the science behind it for 25 years, and focused on food and agricultural applications for the last decade. Although there are other meat decaying-sensors out there — like this microchip invented by researchers in the Netherlands — they’re often bulky, expensive, and require serious know-how to properly use. In contrast, Swager’s lab has invented “the cheapest, smallest, easiest-to-manufacture sensors,” he said in an MIT press release.

The sensor isn’t available for commercial use yet, but Swager believes it’s “definitely” in the cards. More than that, he says that the sky is the limit for the technology. “I am constantly looking for important applications,” he told us. “Helping to feed the work is pretty important.”

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