Switzerland develops edible temperature sensor to solve food preservation problems

[China Instrument Network Instrument R&D] keeps fresh foods fresh during transportation. This is a more difficult issue than people think, but Swiss are doing this work. Recently, a research group in Switzerland invented a biosensor that can be biodegraded. This ensures that the food is fresh from the start to the mouth.

In simple terms, in order to keep fresh foods fresh, they are kept at a certain low temperature. At this time, if you sense the temperature by hand, it is a very painful thing. However, if you can use a temperature sensor to monitor it wirelessly in real time, you can save time and effort.

Although they are now doing so, such as using RFID tags, etc., the materials used to make these labels are not recommended for use. They may even be toxic.

Giovanni Salvatore is a Zurich researcher whose solution is to create an ultra-thin sensor using a material that humans can safely digest.

Recently, he and his team published research results in the magazine Advanced Functional Materials.

They managed to create a sensor that was only 16 microns thick—in contrast, human hair was about 100 microns. This filament is made of magnesium and they said at a press conference that "Mg is an important part of our diet." Similarly, this edible temperature sensor also uses silicon dioxide and silicon nitride, which are also harmless to the human body. It is a compostable polymer made of corn and potato starch that can hold them together. The entire thing can be bent, stretched, and even worked in a crumpled state.

So when you're at random choosing apples, fish, bananas, etc., put them in the freezer on a truck or boat. Then you can check the actual temperature of the food outside the freezing room. When they reach their destination, these temperature sensors will eventually degrade in your body.

Of course, the power and wireless components used in this process are not biodegradable - they are located elsewhere and connected to zinc cables (which may also be an important part of our diet). This is the problem. They only solved half of the problems, but this is better than nothing.

(Original title: Switzerland developed an edible temperature sensor to solve the food preservation problem)