The overall objective of the FoodTeckINK project is to analyze the industrial applicability of colorimetric indicators to monitor the freshness and quality of fresh packaged food. These colorimetric indicators are based on smart inks that are integrated in non-invasive smart-labels and that allow to provide real data on the quality of the packaged fresh product along the entire value chain.
The aim of this project is to advance in intelligent packaging systems for fresh packaged products that allow, in a non-invasive way, to monitor the quality of the product and minimize the waste rate of this type of food in the food sector.
FoodTechINK has been funded by the Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo in the 2021 call of the support program for Innovative Business Groups (AEI). It is coordinated by Galician Food & Drink Cluste rand has the participation of the Centro Tecnolóxico da Carne (CTC), and the companies ColorSensing SL, Cofrico SL and Vegalsa-Eroski SL.
Objectives of FoodTechInk
- To establish the economic impact and main problems associated with the processing and performance of current quality controls for fresh packaged food along the value chain.
- Identify and characterize through literature and shelf life tests the most relevant parameters that can determine the freshness of meat and fish, and that will serve for the preliminary prototyping of smart labels for the determination of food freshness.
- Characterize the cold chain and those factors that have the greatest impact on the preservation of fresh packaged food and that will be used for the design of smart inks with the capacity to inform about the cold chain itself.
- To establish the economic viability and scalability of the smart packaging technology based on colorimetric labels through a proof of concept carried out in a pilot line.
- To carry out technological innovation and market studies on smart labels.
- Disseminate the potential of smart inks and colorimetric labels with univocal two-dimensional code for monitoring the quality of the fresh packaged product, especially through the results of the project.
