The glow of food dye can be used to monitor food quality

31 March 2017

Researchers have discovered that Allura Red, a synthetic food and pharmaceutical color widely used in the US, boasts special properties that may make it and other dyes appropriate as sensors or edible probes to monitor foods and pharmaceuticals. “It might be possible to monitor quality in products not only during manufacture but also during distribution, storage, or even during point of sale in the market,” Richard Ludescher from Rutgers University pointed out. “Imagine employees at the local supermarket monitoring the product quality of foods on the shelf by simply scanning the actual product through its packaging with a handheld spectrometer” (News Item ScienceDaily, 15 February 2017).
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