By MARTIN JOHNSTON
Consumers will be able to check whether perishable foods like bacon have been left stewing in the sun if a new adhesive monitoring tag catches on.
Auckland company Bell Technology is importing the plastic tags, which change colour after a preset number of days, or earlier if the surrounding temperature rises above a preset safety level.
The so-called Vitsab TTI tags are switched on by squeezing. This combines enzymes to produce a time- and temperature-sensitive mix.
Kathy Pritchard, the food programme manager at Auckland's Public Health Protection Service, said yesterday that failure to keep perishable foods cold was one of the causes of food poisoning.
She had not previously heard of the new tags but said that anything which made people more aware of food safety was welcome.
"In summer we try to encourage people to take their perishable groceries home from the supermarket in a chilly-bin but I don't think many people do it. So the chances are that the colour thing will be changing on the drive home."
Bell business development manager John Butler said the tags, which would cost 25c to $2 each here, had been used in the United States on supermarket packs of fish for the past year.
He said one New Zealand company had bought 1000 tags to use on export packs of meat and Bell was also talking to chicken and bacon producers. They could also be used on some pharmaceutical, blood and horticultural products.
How food was stored before people bought it was often a mystery to consumers but if Vitsabs were used they would reveal some of that history.
Ms Pritchard said the new tags could not replace the existing date-display system since foods with a shelf life of less than 90 days were legally required to carry a mark stating their use-by date, their best-by date or the date on which they were packed.
Colour-changing tags add safety factor to perishable food
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