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Bumpy labels that signal when food has gone off are set to be introduced for dairy products

The labels become bumpy when the milk has gone off
The labels become bumpy when the milk has gone off

High tech food labels that turn 'bumpy' when products have gone off are set to be introduced by a dairy company to show high street shoppers when food is no longer safe to eat.

The scheme is being tested on dairy products by milk, cheese and cream giant Arla, which has developed labels which deteriorate at the same rate as the products it is used on.

When the product has reached the end of its shelf life the gelatine-based gel in the label reacts to changes in the packaged food and temperature outside resulting in a molecular breakdown.

The packaging then develops bumps, making it easier for consumers to see and feel if food is no longer safe.

Food producers often err on the side of caution and include use-by dates that are often several days before the food goes off. 

The bumpy packaging is designed to give consumers confidence that even when the use-by date has expired, the food is edible until the gelatin reacts and has been backed by campaigners as a new way to reduce unnecessary waste. 

Bumpy food label 
Use by dates on current packaging encourage people to throw food away prematurely, experts say

The average UK household throws away £470 of food every year and in 2015 7.3 tonnes of food was binned, 4.4 tonnes of which was avoidable, according to waste and recycling advisory body Wrap.

Dairy products could have an additional three days shelf life if 'buffer time' was taken into account, Wrap say.

Arla teamed up with food tech start-up Mimica Touch to create the technology. Mimica founder Solveiga Pakstaite said the new label would give suppliers the confidence to offer longer shelf-lives by calculate expiry dates based on a best case scenario offed by the new label. 

Ms Pakstaite, founder of Mimica, has won several awards for food-waste technology and is a former Brunel University student. 

"Expiry dates are not that great to go by, it all really depends on your fridge and how well you look after your food," she said in a promotional video.

"Population continues to rise and the big question is how are we going to feed everyone?

"The bump mark is a simple add-on to food packaging and it decays exactly the way your food does and lets you know exactly when your food goes off.

"It is really simple to read, if it feels smooth it means your food is safe and only when it feels bumpy is it time for the bin dump."

The entrepreneur, who was previously named MIT Technology Review's Inventor of the Year for the food expiry label, added: "We are really excited to be working so closely with a highly innovative organisation like Arla to bring accurate food spoilage information to consumers to provide peace of mind and the confidence to use food for longer.

"The Mimica project started from my desire to improve accessibly to expiry dates for all, and it was so nice to see how excited she was for the possibilities for the future of food.”

Arla are now in talks to run consumer tests in Britain later this year which, if successful, could see a commercial roll-out of the labels in supermarkets and it is hoped they could help reduce food waste. 

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN estimates that globally one-third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted, with fruit and vegetables more likely to be binned than any other produce. 

A spokesman for Arla said: "Our first step is to test consumer feedback on the product but we are excited by the possibility Mimica labels might bring in reducing food waste by giving a far more accurate indicatio n of product expiration than date labels."