University of Hyderabad (UoH) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research - National Research Centre on Meat (ICAR-NRCM) and Elvikon India Pvt. Ltd. on Thursday.
The main objective of the collaboration is to digitalise the "best before date" of packaged foods, especially meat products, to address meat waste and food safety. The plan is to develop smart sensor by integrating hardware components and an application for providing real-time quality information to consumers.
Elvikon (industry partner) will provide sensor technology and knowhow, formulation of the sensor ink and integration of hardware components and will also make the demonstrator prototype. UoH will finalise the specifications required for hardware integration of the smart sensor. It will also provide customised mobile app for digitalisation of the best before date.
ICAR-NRCM will identify key volatile compounds and calibration of sensor by correlation of the sensor response and meat bacteria under different storage and packing conditions. The smart sensor can warn the user about potential temperature breach or mishandling during shipment and storage, which could jeopardise food safety notwithstanding the label’s specified expiration or use-by date.
The MoU was signed by UoH registrar Devesh Nigam, ICAR-NRCM director S.B. Barbuddhe, and Elvikon director A. Rambabu in the presence of VC B.J. Rao and others, said a press release.
