ActiLabel
PoC Project
Development of new Smart labels for Time/Temperature Monitoring
Project funded by The EUREKA Venture group
The Societal Challenge
• A third of all food produced globally for human consumption is lost or wasted.
• Over 40% of this waste occurs at retail and consumer level. “Best Before” & “Sell By” dates are currently the only indication of freshness & safety resulting in extensive food waste.
ACTILABEL monitors and records the temperature / time history of goods.
•Information gained on the conservation of a food item removes:
(1) the uncertainty of the status of food items(2) minimises risk to consumer health(3) provides a tool to help determine best practices for the storage and handling of products.
Potential applications are related to accurate determination of food shelf life and safety, assuring end user of quality of food.
The Project
The ambition of the project is the development of an ‘intelligent’ food labelling system capable of measuring food freshness and allowing new models of information driven food distribution, commercialization and consumption. This novel system is based on the exploitation of innovative optical labels, composed of patented materials, and overcomes the limitations of current state-of-the-art labels, namely Critical Temperature Indicators and Time Temperature Indicators – CTI and TTI, which incidentally are not largely distributed in the market. ACTILABEL is an OSL-based TTI that guarantees the same information conveyed by CTI and TTI labels respectively but greatly reduces their main restrictions of high cost and low recyclability and allows more reliable and accurate information on the food conservation to be obtained.
Two potential markets have been identified:
1. Customers involved in large scale distribution along the complete supply chain and
2. Final end user customers comprised of the general public.
The prototype developed in this project is aimed at the first market and will take the form of a compact portable module that can be used to demonstrate the concept in different market applications. The different customer segments include stakeholders operating within the complete food chain such as food producers, large food distribution industries, catering companies, retailers and food packaging companies. Its adoption appears strategic at different levels: beside the perspective goal of food waste reduction, ACTILABEL allows controlling the conservation conditions along the distribution chain. The distribution chain control allows producers and retailers to guarantee the product (added value), to prevent threats for the consumer and for the brand, to develop more efficient and money saving practices. 
The individuated early adopters’ is the baby food market, where customers, producers and distributors are very sensitive to health issues and willing to introduce new effective solutions.
A simply app will verify the condition of the goods and assure the safety for the customer and/or dealers.
No electronic part are installed in the label, that are totally eco-friendly and recyclable.
For more information, Contact Us
Treetop
Dipartimento di Fisica - Cittadella Universitaria sp.8 Km 0-700 09042 Monserrato /CA) - Italy