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Frozen food safety
Why is it in news?
- Researchers from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (ICAR-CIFT), Kochi, Kerala, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S., have now found a way using gold nanoparticles that they synthesised to help tell if frozen food is still edible.
More in news
- Need of maintaining temperature:(1) The temperature at which food products are stored is vital in ensuring their quality.(2) For example, in retail outlets across India, power failure and repeated opening and closing of freezer storage units in which food products are stored can lead to temperature fluctuations.(3) These in turn can affect the quality of food, especially perishable food, leading to microbial growth.(4) Temperature fluctuations can also affect vaccines and drugs that are stored in cold storage or at below room temperature.
- How it works?:(1) The nanoparticles change colour in response to changes in temperature.(2) They become ruby red (similar to the colour of red wine) at -18° C and turn purple when the temperature rises.(3) At room temperature, their colour is dark grey.(4) To synthesise the nanoparticles, the researchers used chitosan, a natural biodegradable polysaccharide that was extracted from marine waste such as shrimp and crab shell.
Source
The Hindu