<p dir="ltr">The reports from Food Bank Australia reveal that, in 2024 alone, 3.4 million households ran out of food. At the same time, food wastage in the country is approximately 7.6 million tonnes per year. Unfortunately,70% of this wasted food is actually edible. One of the main reasons is food packets past their expiry date, especially meat packets, are tossed even when they are perfectly safe. This food wastage also leads to emission of 17.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Currently researchers are focusing on finding a reliable alternative to expiry dates. As a part of my PhD project, I am trying to fabricate a sensor to track meat spoilage. When meat begins to spoil, some gases like ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, are released due to microbial reactions. A sensor attached to the meat packet detects these gases and changes colour, indicating that it is unsafe to eat.</p>
