Washington - Even in 2017, we often decide whether the salmon in the back
of our refrigerator is still edible by giving it a sniff and looking at the
"sell-by" date.
A company called Braskem wants to bring a little more
science into the decision. It has developed away to make plastic food or beverage
containers change from one colour to another when they react to the changing pH
levels of their contents, a sign that certain products may be spoiling.
Even though this type of technology has existed in some form
for decades, Braskem has certain advantages. The $7 billion
plastics-and-chemical company is the largest producer in the Americas of
materials that are molded into bottle caps, jugs, reusable containers, cosmetic
packaging and much more. It has production plants in Brazil,
the United States, Mexico and Germany.
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"Braskem has got the advantages of scale and they are
well known in this particular sector for a good quality product," said
Andrew Manly, communications director for the Active and Intelligent Packaging
Industry Association.
The idea for this technology originated in Brazil, which has
had its share of food safety scandals, including allegations in March that
employees at some food companies bribed government inspectors to allow rotten
and salmonella-contaminated meat to be sold.
"In the country we've seen food that was contaminated,
or the package was violated and food contaminated in the production or
transportation process, or in the supermarket,"said Patrick Teyssonneyre,
Braskem's director of technology and innovation.
Braskem's pitch for the technology comes as many consumers
continue to be confused about what "sell by" dates are supposed to
mean, and typically decide on whether to throw out food by relying on what they
see and smell an imprecise practice that could lead to food poisoning or good
food being discarded prematurely.
In the United
States, Americans throw away $218 billion
worth of food each year, according to the NRDC. The anti-food-waste coalition
ReFED estimates that standardized date labels could help save nearly $2
billion.
Bringing a new detection system to market will likely
require Braskem to win over not just consumers but cost-conscious retailers,
according to Claire Koelsch Sand, president of the consultancy Packaging
Technology and Research and an adjunct professor at Michigan State
University. While food
manufacturers drove a lot of change in the 1970s, retailers now serve as
important gatekeepers.
Walmart, for instance, drove adoption of RFID tags for
tracking goods and Amazon has been pushing for better packaging.
"If this company really wanted to succeed, they would
need to partner with not only a food manufacturer, but a retailer,"
Koelsch Sand said.
Meghan Stasz, senior director, sustainability at the Grocery
Manufacturers Association, said a key challenge is likely to be cost.
"Even if you are looking at a penny additional for your
packaging, when you multiply that over a million pieces of packaging it gets
cost prohibitive pretty quickly," Stasz said.Braskem executives contend that costs should come down as
the technology gains wide acceptance.
"There are plenty of opportunities when scaling up this
technology to reduce the cost. We believe that we could provide to the market a
very cost competitive solution, especially when comparing to the benefits that
it will bring to the consumers," Teyssonneyre said.
Still, the value must be evident, experts say. "If it's
just one of those situations where the technology is no better than what the
consumer already has, which is their own nose and their own sight, then
[companies] are going to be reluctant to add cost to the system," said Bob
Whitaker, chief science and technology officer for the Produce Marketing
Association.
One way to get retailers on board would be to persuade them
of the benefits not only of more transparency around food expiration, but also
the way the technology could help catch food fraud, such as added filler
ingredients in pet food, and increase food safety.
"If we can get a retailer to see it from a more
holistic point of view, as opposed to just this is an added cost to my
packaging, we might be getting somewhere," said Manly, from the
intelligent packaging industry.
The Brazil-based company began developing the technology in
2013 and creating a prototype in 2015. The company still needs to do extensive
testing to ensure its technology accurately detects spoilage and does not
produce false positives. It would also need to figure out which indicators
beyond pH changes will matter to producers and retailers, and ensure consumers
understand the limits of the technology's assurances.
"That's a huge risk, to say something is okay, and then
it won't be," Koelsch Sand said.Still, Braskem hopes it can find a partner
and begin delivering the containers to store shelves in two to three years.
WASHINGTON POST