It may not constitute one of biggest dilemmas of life, however it’s obviously one of the most frequent.
Whether to bite the bullet and sling wilting produce and 2-day old fish in the trash, or hope for the best and throw it in the pan?
In many cases it is a judgment call, however American scientists informed on Sunday that they have discovered a tool that could take the guesswork, and the angst, out of the process of decision-making.
This tool is a disposable dipstick that is able to detect if food is still suitable to consume or whether it is a health hazard that could result in a case of food poisoning.
90 per cent rate of accuracy
Laboratory tests revealed that the device had a 90 per cent rate of accuracy.
"It has the potential to alter the way the people think about the quality of their food and enormously influence public health," explained John Lavigne, an assistant professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
The dipstick is made of particular polymers or synthetic materials altering color in the existence of chemicals produced by illness-causing bacteria.
These chemical substances are called non-volatile biogenic amines and are generated in the course of the bacterial decay of food proteins and offer a not direct measurement of the extent of food spoilage, the scientists explained in a paper presented at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Color suggests degree
The polymers even alter the color in order to reflect the level of amines and food spoilage.
Some laboratory tests conducted on fresh salmon, fresh tuna and canned tuna, the dipstick altered from a dark purple to a yellow in the incidence of badly spoiled fish, and dark purple to a reddish color in the incidence of mildly spoiled fish.
The investigators are planning further tests on vegetables, fruit and meat.
According to Lavigne, introductory testing demonstrates that the dipsticks are sensitive to even small amounts of protein decay resulting from bacterial activity.
The scientists hope to advertise the dipstick as a test kit that customers could use at home or in restaurants.
