Laser determines if food is spoiled

We might soon have less use for our sense of smell – especially mothers who often smell whether that putrid-looking bit of food or drink in the fridge can be consumed safely or not. After all, a new kind of laser has been developed that allows it to optically “sniff” meat, bread and other kinds of foods to determine their levels of freshness and safety.

Right now, foods are only spot-checked for safety, which means there is a risk of some bad food slipping through quality control, while this new laser technology is said to “make it possible to check a much higher number of products than at present,” at least according to Märta Lewander, an atomic physicist at Lund University in Sweden who obviously is part of the instrument’s development team.

The laser will remain part of a handheld unit that shines an intense light at a food item, so that carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen content inside the packaging can be determined before relaying such information to a computer to have it analyzed. The wrong composition would mean food inside has turned bad, and is not fit for consumption.