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UF's smart sensor has sense of freshness

The University of Florida has developed a sensor platform that it claims is capable of tracking temperature, humidity, shock, and other variables.

Pw 10118 2 Nl Pi Uf Tempsensor

Freshness guaranteed? Grocers, florists and even pharmacists may soon have a better way to monitor the quality of the products they get from suppliers: a sensor that will tell how long before a product spoils or passes its expiration date.

A team of University of Florida students in Gainesville has designed and built a prototype of a new smart sensor that can record and wirelessly transmit information to retailers about when and where glitches occur as a product is being shipped.

“We think this sensor will make the perishable supply chain safer and more efficient,” says Bruce Welt, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering and a faculty adviser on the project. “Hopefully, that will translate into lower cost, better quality products for consumers.”

According to the university, many shippers today are reluctant to use disposable tags or labels that turn color or otherwise indicate if a product has passed its prime. One problem is that the tags don’t say when spoilage occurred. Nor do most indicate whether “fresh” goods will soon spoil. The former can make it hard to decide who is responsible when a spoiled product arrives. The latter can result in stores stocking merchandise that appears fine, but quickly spoils.

Another problem is that products have different spoilage rates and temperatures, thus the tags have to contain different chemicals or otherwise be tailored to individual products. That raises their cost and increases the possibility of errors.

Shippers also rely on temperature monitors that indicate if, and by how much, a product’s recommended transport temperature has been exceeded. That’s a problem because the devices may record excessive temperature near only one pallet of many pallets stacked together in one shipping container. That can force the entire shipment to be discarded even if most remained very near or within temperature guidelines.

“The reality is that for small violations of these temperatures, the products are fine, but get thrown away anyway,” Welt says.

Based on sensor platform

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