Say goodbye to static expiry date labels. Swedish maker of dynamic sensor labels Innoscentia is developing printed intelligent expiry labels aimed at significantly reducing food wastage by enabling real-time quality monitoring of food.
The company has partnered with printed electronics pioneer Ynvisible to provide the displays for the dynamic expiry date labels on food packages.
“After recent breakthroughs with our sensors, we are now ready to take the next step to produce a prototype, and we believe Ynvisible to be the optimal partner for this because of their experience and cutting-edge technology within printed displays and electronics,” said Erik Månsson, CEO of Innoscentia. “The results of the project will hopefully move us a big step closer towards disrupting the current labelling system of food and help us create a more sustainable food value chain in the future. We are very pleased to be able to join forces with Ynvisible to fuel the development of our digital sensor labels.”
Jani-Mikael Kuusisto, CEO of Ynvisible, said that providing smart labels for retail, logistics, and premium products is a key business platform for Ynvisible. “With Innocentia, we recognise that by helping firms to achieve the highest levels of product freshness through scalable IoT packaging solutions, we can help unlock added value through to the end-user and minimize food waste," he added.
Currently, vast amounts of food go to waste because of static expiry dates. Innoscentia’s labels aim to unlock the lost shelf life of food products to help decrease this unnecessary waste. The labels also create possibilities for traceability solutions and connection to digital platforms to trace products from farm to fork, a rapidly growing trend within the food industry.
On the other hand, Ynvisible is a leading company in the emerging printed and flexible electronics sector. It has the experience, know-how and intellectual property in electrochromic materials, inks, and systems. The company’s interactive printed graphics solutions solve the need for ultra-low power, mass deployable, and easy-to-use electronic displays and indicators for everyday smart objects, IoT devices, and ambient intelligence (intelligent surfaces).
Given the cost and power-consumption advantages over conventional electronics, printed electronics are a key enabler of mass adoption of IoT and smart objects. Ynvisible provides a mix of services, materials and technology to brand owners developing smart objects and IoT products.
"To integrate a display into a label for packaging, three things are crucial: low power consumption, which enables wireless powering, flexibility, which enables a label-like form factor, and low cost, which is a must for integration on packages,” said Philip Holgersson, business developer at Ynvisible.
Besides choosing Ynvisible's display technology, Innoscentia is currently using Ynvisible's R&D services for the label development, including system design and adapting the sensor for large scale production with printing processes.
“At Ynvisible, we can offer clients tailored R&D services to incorporate our displays into existing products as we have done for Innoscentia," he added.
