Development of a color indicator for fish spoilage monitoring as an attempt to design a smart packaging

Development of a color indicator for fish spoilage monitoring as an attempt to design a smart packaging

Today’s technology development increases the need for innovative packaging. Packages that do more than just keeping the products, packages that during storage, retailing and even in shops sense the environment and show product quality changes. These packages are known as “Intelligent packaging” that are of interest these days in different industries. Intelligent packaging can inform consumers about ripeness of the fruit they are purchasing, about ripeness of a canned pickle , about freshness of packed meat, poultry and fish or about temperature of drinks (hot or cold). In this study, we tried to prepare an indicator for fish spoilage. As fish spoils, it releases some basic gases that decreases the headspace pH and this change can be detected by pH sensitive dyes that change color by pH changing. Bromothymol blue and cresol red were used as pH sensitive dyes and the results were compared to determine which one is more accurate. To confirm reliability of the pH indicators microbial count was taken.