Think your food is off? Check the colour

FOOD poisoning could be a thing of the past, thanks to a revolutionary new packaging that changes colour.

Scientists in Germany have invented a sensor film that changes from yellow to blue to show when meat or fish has gone bad.

It could mean an end to the unpleasant kitchen ritual of having to smell chicken legs, pork chops or pieces of fish to see if they are spoiled.

There have been several scandals involving the sale of rotten meat, and customers themselves shorten the shelf life of many meat and fish products by not storing them properly.

Now experts at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies in Munich have developed a plastic film which can be incorporated into packaging to tell if food has gone off. The film responds to biogenic amines, the molecules produced when foods, such as meat and fish, decay. They are also responsible for the unpleasant smell from meat and fish which has gone off.

If amines are released into the air within the packaging, the indicator dye on the sensor film reacts with them and changes its colour.