Fresh Test Sensors - The pitch

Are you sure that milk is as fresh as it says? You can’t really know unless it comes with a Fresh Test Sensor. Fresh Test Sensors are ever vigilant guards against groceries getting exposed to the elements.

Fresh Test Sensors - The fun part

This will require some real ingenuity. Either the chemical or electric route would require being very clever about making something that works and is also extremely cheap. This idea is only viable if the cost at scale can be much less than one cent per sensor.

Fresh Test Sensors - The growth potential

Let’s start with milk. Let’s say there are 100 million households in the US and on average each one buys a gallon of milk a week. If each had one of these sensors, that would be $1 million a week or $52 million a year in revenue. If this grew to a number of other grocery and pharmaceutical goods, it could grow to be ten times that.

Fresh Test Sensors - The monetization

The sensors would need to be extremely cheap to manufacture, roughly one-tenth of a cent. The sensors would be sold for one cent per sensor.  For a gallon of milk, adding 1 cent doesn’t have a real cost impact, but could give real piece of mind to consumers.

Fresh Test Sensors - The idea

It should be possible to create extremely cheap sensors that tell if a product went above a given temperature. For example, there could be a chemical sticker that changes state (and color) when it goes above a given temperature, something similar to thermochromism, except the change would need to be irreversible.

Chemical Sensors

This would require developing a cheap non-toxic material that makes an irreversible state change when it goes above some temperature T. The chemical would be put into a sticker on goods like milk cartons, egg containers, and other refrigerated products.  The simplicity of a chemical change also, however, comes with a lack of detail. The change only tells you that it exceeded a temperature, not how long the temperature was exceeded, which may be an important factor.

Electrical Sensors

The alternative is to make cheap chips that have temperature sensors and a tiny battery. The chip would spend 99% of it’s life sleeping conserving battery live. For a second every hour, it would turn itself back on and measure the temperature. The hourly temperature would be recorded until the good arrives at the final point of sale (the grocery store). There a grocery worker would use and RFID scanner to scan the package and see a summary of the temperature history of the good. If it doesn’t fit the federal, state, and store policy, then the good is rejected. Also worth noting is that other sensors could also be used to measure exposure to sunlight and acceleration.

If implemented at scale, these sensors could ensure food safety is cheap and simple. This could also apply to imported and exported goods.

Fresh Test Sensors - The motivation

One challenge with grocery goods and pharmaceuticals is that they can become spoiled if they spend a certain amount of time above a given temperature. From the source to final sale, it can be hard to determine if the goods stayed cool the entire time, as there can be many handoffs. It would be nice to have a simple, easy to read indicator that a product is still good.