"sniffing" news and stories

Russian scientists have developed a device that essentially smells meat to determine how old it is and whether it's been stored properly. A sniff check is nothing new to any cook who's ever tried to decide if that week-old t-bone was still a candidate for dinner, but this new Russian sensor uses a series of highly sensitive electrodes to measure the gases that raw meat emits as it ages. Molecules evaporating from the surface of the meat are caught by coatings on sensors and the changed weight of the sensors is converted to a graphic depiction that looks something like a flower. Different types of aging and decay make different patterns and researchers say that the pattern for fresh meat is vastly different than that of a cut that's a few days old. They hope their device can be of use to meat packers and other safety controllers trying to identify unsafe foods.

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