FR2857748A1 - Lapsed and remaining deterioration duration measuring and displaying method for product e.g. frozen foodstuff, involves visually indicating duration of exposure of product to air and duration defined by expiry date - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves creating a parallel and synchronous interaction visible with product deterioration which is invisible and consecutive to product exposure to air. Duration of exposure to the air and duration defined by an expiry date of the product is visually indicated. The product is exposed directly or consecutive to the opening of its container, or by communication of the containers interior with ambient air. An independent claim is also included for a product deterioration indicator.

Description

Thermo-temporal indicator measuring, food safety or weathering.

  The invention relates to the safety of consumption and / or use of products alterable, perishable or perishable, whatever they are.

  In the food sector, it is particularly intended to ensure the food safety of fresh, canned or frozen foods.

  In other commercial sectors, it will concern the safety of use of many products, for example, household, medical, pharmaceutical or cosmetic.

  In the food sector, the products concerned, for example, fresh products, desserts, dairy products, fruit drinks, preserves or other, are packaged in packaging or packaging adapted to their nature, pots, boxes, bottles , bricks or others. These are usually closed by a cap or lid, screwed, glued or crimped.

  In accordance with the legal provisions, these packagings or packaging contain a marking indicating the use-by date, as defined by the manufacturer, depending on the nature of the packaged products, the additives and / or the preservation process used, sterilization or other .

  According to these same provisions, these packages or packages, in particular for fresh products, include another marking indicating the period during which the product is consumable without loss of its nutritional, organoleptic and taste qualities, from the moment of their opening.

  This mention is, for example, type after opening, keep between 4 and 6 degrees and consume in X days ".

  By cons, no system or device is currently provided to inform the consumer on the actual opening time of the container and / or its storage conditions and therefore nothing informs about the state of tampering of the products started contained in packaging or already opened packaging.

  In summary, the consumer currently has no way of knowing since when a package is opened, how it has been kept and whether its contents are still usable or safe to consume.

  In case of error of judgment, he consumes an altered or oxidized product whose nutritional, nutritive, organoleptic and taste qualities are degraded or lost, unfit for consumption, containing pathogens, germs, toxins, bacteria or others, with serious risks to his health.

  This risk is further aggravated for people whose immune defenses are deficient or impaired and this is the case, for example, pregnant women, babies, elderly or sick.

  Depending on the virulence of the developing pathogen, such as, for example, listeria, it can lead to a pathology that can cause very serious and even sometimes fatal lesions.

  The same problem also arises for unconditioned products and therefore directly exposed to ambient air and temperature conditions, such as those in the butchery sector, for example.

  Thus, for a given date of slaughter and indicated, the sanitary, nutritional and taste qualities of a piece of meat are not the same for a product preserved in the adapted thermal conditions and for another which would not have it. summer.

  At the same time, another problem arises with regard to packaged or packaged foodstuffs not yet opened and still, for example, being marketed or stored.

  In order to make an informed purchase, the consumer must then consult the expiry date indicated on the package, which can be problematic for those, such as the elderly, who have certain difficulties in seeing well.

  Indeed, no system or device is currently intended to inform, optically and at a glance, the duration of marketing a perifable product and its possible overrun, also cause the alteration of the product content and likely to cause serious health risks.

  Similarly for a product kept for a period beyond that of the expiry date.

  On another level, the preceding remarks also apply to the use and consumption of non-food or non-food products, for example those marketed by the medical, pharmaceutical or cosmetic industries, whose use and / or effectiveness are limited in time.

  Concerning visualization and time measurement, patent applications WO 96 28714 A and EP 0 092 034 A describe devices using the migration of a visco-plastic fluid in a porous medium. These devices do not use ambient air and do not generate interactions, neither physical nor chemical, that are comparable to those used in the invention.

  In addition, they are not associated with packaging or packaging, nor with a corresponding scale graduated in time units, and therefore do not indicate and do not measure an elapsed and rest period and / or the term of a length.

  The invention, associated with a corresponding alteration scale graduated in units of time, for example, in days, weeks or months, acts in the manner of a time counter indicating, by measuring it, an elapsed and remaining time and / or the term of a duration.

  As a result, it confers on all packaging and packaging of tamperable products, to which it is attached or reported, the possibility of informing the consumer of the state of deterioration of the packaged or packaged product and this in two parallel and complementary situations. A. Packaging The packaging is opened and the product is, or has been, directly exposed to air and ambient conditions through this opening.

  The invention informs the consumer of the period from which the packaging or packaging is opened and, depending on the characteristics defined by the manufacturer and specific to the product, the period during which the alterable product will still have the optimum consumption conditions, in terms of sanitary safety, organoleptic and taste, contitions functions of its state of deterioration.

  Situation B. Packaging has never been opened and is, for example, being marketed.

  The invention informs the buyer, optically and without the latter having to look at the expiry date, on the possible exceeding of the period during which the product is still marketable and / or usable and / or consumable.

  The technique according to the invention consists in the addition, in some way, directly or indirectly, to the packaging and packaging of perishable or perimitable products, a control using the temporal progression of a visible process or interaction. simple and reliable, neither mechanical nor electronic, this process and / or its progression being parallel and synchronous with the invisible alteration of the perimitable or perishable product, this alteration being caused by its contact with the ambient air entered during 10 opening of its packaging or packaging.

  According to the invention, the visible process, whatever it may be, is at the same time induced by an agent: the ambient air and its components, preferentially its oxygen atoms, and the function of a factor of acceleration or slowing down of the reaction and / or its progression: the ambient or storage temperature.

  It is caused: Situation A: from the opening of the packaging or packaging, by or during this opening, in any way, by exposure to the ambient air of the inducing end of the control , comprising a suitable reactive compound, isolated from the ambient air by a suitable wall, oxygen barrier.

  Situation B: by exposure, parallel to the ambient air, of the entire length of the same reactive compound, through the same wall, oxygen barrier and the insulation of the ambient air.

  This wall, an oxygen barrier, will be of suitable thickness and porosity index, allowing the slow migration of the oxygen atoms present in the ambient air, in a given time, corresponding to the time required for safety. consumption or use of the consumer.

  Acting as a time counter (or time indicator of freshness or safety, especially, food), the appearance of the control is modified, visibly and in a manner parallel and synchronous with the invisible degradation, oxidation or other, induced or generated at within the product, both by the air in contact and by the thermal conditions of its conservation.

  This witness, added to or related to a perishable product directly exposed to the air or to a packaging or a packaging of such a product, (for example, to its labeling or to its closure) visualizes: In the situation A, by the steady progression of the reaction or interaction with respect to a scale graduated in suitable time units, the time elapsed since the opening of the packaging and therefore the duration of exposure to the air of the product, and depending on its characteristics, the remaining time during which this product will retain its sanitary, organoleptic, nutritional and taste qualities, taking into account the ambient thermal conditions.

  In situation B, by the parallel modification of the entire length of the reactive zone, the possible exceeding of the period during which the product is still marketable and / or consumable, always taking into account the thermal conditions of conservation.

  This modification will be of the chromatic type, modifying the wavelength perceived by the observer, whatever the processes used, physical, by incident light diffraction, chemical, by use of pigments or dyes, natural or synthetic, bio or photo-chemical or other.

  In such a device, the process or reaction is then visualized by prog ressing the colored area, in the manner of a computer loading bar.

  The witness and / or its colored zone may take different forms and configurations, crown, pellet, bar, bar code, spiral, pictogram, message or other.

  The oxidizable reagent will be isolated from the ambient air, for example, in a groove of an oxygen-tight support and / or between two sealed supports or inside a closed tube of the same kind.

  These cookies, called, for example, "food safety control" or "consumption control" or "control of use", will preferably be associated with packaging and packaging. They may also be removable and self-adhesive, unitary and / or continuous band, for example, distributed by a reel or special distributor.

  Whatever the technology, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the chromatic change will materialize, for example, by a passage of the white color, symbolizing the inalterability of the perishable or perimitable product conditioned, to, by example, a blue or purple color.

  The support or bottom of the control will be, for example, itself white or metallized, the color reaction progressing regularly towards an area, for example, red or progressively red, symbolizing the alteration of the packaged product and therefore the period when its consumption is or becomes dangerous.

  According to the invention, the progression of the colored zone, measuring the time, will take place with respect to an alteration or expiration scale, graduated in units of time, for example, in days, weeks or weeks. in months, determining grades or indices of alteration or expiry.

  As an indication, a product that completely deteriorates over a period of 3 days, or less, corresponds on this scale to a deterioration index A, a duration of 3 to 6 days, corresponds to an index B, a duration of 6 at 10 days, would correspond to a C index, a duration of 10 to 15 days, would correspond to a D index, a duration of 15 to 21 days, would correspond to an index E ...

  In all cases, the witness and its scale of expiry or alteration, the regularity and reliability of its measures must be recognized by the authorities in charge of trade.

  As such, being intended to be used, among others, in the food and health sectors, its components will comply with food and / or sanitary standards and without any harmfulness or toxicity.

  Preferentially, the reaction using chemical elements modifying the molecular and / or atomic structures will have as agent the oxygen atoms naturally contained in the ambient air.

  These reactions will be, for example, the type of oxidation and / or oxidoreduction and / or mineral and / or organic deoxidation, whatever they are and whatever the implementations.

  In these reactions, in particular oxido-reductions, an oxidant, which is defined as an electron acceptor element acts on another element, reducing, which is defined as an electron donor.

  By these electron transfer reactions, in contact with the air and by capturing its oxygen atoms, any suitable chemical elements, whatever they may be, will undergo a modification, whatever it may be, of their bonds and or chemical, molecular, atomic and / or ionic and / or valence combinations.

  Their valence and / or covalence being modified, some elements acquire the properties of a dye.

  For example, certain chemical elements of the family of organic radicals, these elements being able to have, remaining unchanged, at least two states or forms: reduced and oxidized.

  In their reduced form, that is to say deprived, in some way, of their oxygen atoms, certain organic radicals are colorless or white, whereas in their oxidized form, that is to say having received, 15 d in any way, at least one oxygen atom, they are colored.

  The best known example is methylene blue, commonly used in its oxidized form, in the pharmacy and medicine sectors.

  Furthermore, it is known that the oxygen atoms diffuse inside a substrate or fluid or aqueous medium at a rate of about one centimeter per 24 hours.

  Thus, an oxidizable reagent according to the invention will be realized by adding, in any way, such a reduced organic radical to a suitable substrate, for example, a gelatin or a colorless or white gel devoid of any trace of oxygen. the diffusion of the oxygen atoms of the ambient air in contact (diffusion not modified by the oxidizing reaction) oxidizing and coloring the radical during its progression.

  Other substrates with the same function are possible, such as, for example, porous or pasty media.

  According to the embodiment, these reduced organic radicals will be incorporated into the substrate in liquid or powdery form, for example, crystallized in any way, this operation being done in a modified atmosphere and deprived of oxygen, or even, under vacuum, possibly at very low temperature.

  According to the embodiment and implementation, these organic dyes will be microencapsulated, in any way, in a material itself degradable, in any way, by oxidation or oxidation-reduction under the action induced oxygen atoms, naturally contained in the ambient air.

  Other types of transfer reactions of the oxygen atoms of the air are also possible.

  Thus, chemical elements that have lost or gained, in any way, one or more electrons, such as ions, are also usable as dyes under the same conditions.

  For example, metal ions of the iodide type, for example, sodium or potassium, in combination with a substrate including an organic substance such as, for example, starch or glucose.

  In addition to oxidation and oxidation-reduction, other types of chemical reactions are capable of implementing the invention by involving other elements, having as agent another element naturally present in the ambient air, for example , Nitrogen.

  The color can also come from dyes or pigments, natural or synthetic, fluorescent or not, micro-encapsulated by an alterable material or degradable, in any way, by the induced air, within a substrate. In the same way, during the progression in the substrate of the oxygen atoms of the ambient air in contact, the microcapsules will be altered or destroyed by releasing the dye (s).

  A variant of the technique according to the invention consists of a control or indicator comprising, at least, two reagents whose interaction causes or induces, in any way, the chromatic modification. These reagents are then in superimposed layers and separated by a degradable or oxidizable material, in any way, under the conditions previously described.

  In a particular embodiment, the chromatic change will be of "rainbow" or latent type and visible at the end of the period corresponding to the expiry index of the packaged product.

  Depending on the reagents used, the color may also come from a product formed, for example, by progressive precipitation under the action of an agent, for example, oxygen and as a function of a factor: temperature.

  These reagents, whatever they may be, may constitute or enter into the composition of an ink deposited as such in an anaerobic and protected medium, for example, in flat or in graphics (including, forming a date, a mark, a logo or code), in lines, in networks or other, and then isolated from the air.

  This deposit may also take the form of a coil with tight and parallel turns propagating the reaction 20 in a continuous, progressive and controlled manner. It can also be achieved by etching a reactive layer.

  Depending on the technologies and the compounds and reagents used, the thermo-temporal alteration control will also be able to account for a thermal deviation that occurred under the conditions of preservation of a perishable or perishable product, for example, frozen.

  A control adapted to this function will have any thermal label that visibly modifies the reaction and / or its propagation to indicate a break in the cold chain at a given time.

  It will be an element, whatever it is, changing nature or state according to the thermal conditions.

  Other types of reactions can be used to implement the invention.

  For example, biochemical and / or organic and using, within a suitable biological medium, for example, yeasts, algae or other, aerobic saprophyte microorganisms, for example, bacteria or enzymes whose action depends under given pH conditions, both an agent, the ambient air and its natural constituents and a thermal factor, the ambient or storage temperature.

  It can also be photochemical and due to photons acting on a suitable photosensitive reagent when removing an opaque protection, by or when opening the packaging or packaging.

  The invention makes it possible to advance the notion of "measuring, thermotemporal control". Indeed, the reaction and / or its propagation, for example, the oxidation, or the oxidation-reduction, will naturally be a function of the ambient thermal conditions because these conditions They condition the mobility of the oxygen atoms causing it, just as they affect the rate of deterioration of the conditioned products. In this sense it is also possible to say that they are parallel and synchronous reactions.

  Other techniques, of physical type, are succeptibles to implement the invention, for example, the use, for agent, of the ambient atmospheric pressure exerted on a three-dimensional structure, which it is, for example , in "honeycomb", this structure being subjected to an internal depression.

  In such a technique, the three-dimensional structure will contain or support a succeptible component of deformation, for example, liquid crystals, whatever their type, ionized, polarized, or not, the slow progression of the air induced from one of its ends repressurizing the structure, cell by cell, by displacing or deforming the liquid crystals.

  In this technique, the deformation of liquid crystals, for example of the smectic type and acting as a prism or a filter, will result in a modification of their pitch and thus a modification of the diffracted wave ion, by them, in the spectrum of incident light.

  This modification will be translated by a chromatic change visualizing, in time, the progression of the air inside the three-dimensional structure.

  These chromatic impressions can be amplified by a reflective medium, whatever it is.

  This technique also allows the notion of "measuring, thermotemporal control" the progression being a function of the compactness of the three-dimensional structure, itself dependent on the thermal conditions.

  Thus, a three-dimensional structure will be more or less compact and tightened in a cold environment, or even frozen and will allow a slow progression, or zero, induced air, corresponding to the qualities that this temperature has allowed the conditioned product to keep .

  When implementing the "measuring thermo-temporal control" on packaging, for example, the type of bottles, flasks or tubes, a mode, not limiting, of contacting the oxidizable reagent with the air ambient will break, by opening the package or packaging, an end of the support or the tube containing it, for example, by securing this end to a movable portion during opening, for example, its cap.

  Similarly, in the particular application to packaging of the type, for example, bricks or cans, the witness will have, for example, the shape of a ring or a concentric ring of the cap.

  In a manufacturing variant of the control, adapted to the containers, for example, the type of jars, the device may include a conduit inserted, before capping, in a packaging or packaging subjected to an internal vacuum.

  This device may be internal to the container, under the conditions of the contents, and, for example, visible through a sealed opening of the lid, only the end of the conduit being external.

  In use, the cutting of this conduit at a marker, allows air to enter the interior of the jar or jar, cancels the depression that prevails and allows or facilitates the opening.

  5This same conduit, may comprise two parts, one of them being fixed and secured to the closure of the container and the other fixed and integral with the body of the latter.

  It will then be necessary to open or cut the conduit to open or unclog the container.

  Another variant of a "measuring thermo-temporal control", adapted, for example, to packaging of the trays type, will comprise a duct, a surface or a wall, porous and inductive in whole or in part, sealed with a protective insulator and waterproof that must be removed to put the action of the agent.

  This will be, for example, a sticker or a film, heat-shrinkable, thermoformable or peelable.

  These witnesses will begin their reactions, visibly or not, as soon as the insulating element is removed.

  They will be, for example, the seat of successive or continuous reactions of "rainbow" type generating a continuous chromatic variation ranging from the wavelength corresponding to blue to that corresponding to red, passing through those corresponding to green, yellow and orange, indicating the progression of the alteration of the packaged product.

  Such a "measuring thermo-temporal control" used, for example, for the cheese industry will give the consumer a visual indication of the phase of maturity in which the product in question is located.

  In this case, the wavelengths from yellow to green will correspond, for example, to a fresh ultra-fresh product, those from green to blue, for example, to a fresh cheese to mature, those from blue to violet, for example, to a cheese made well done, to consume quickly, until those corresponding to red, indicating a non-consumable product.

  Whatever the technology, these "cookies measuring, thermotemporal" or "witnesses of food safety" or consumption, are likely to be provided for promotional purposes by the manufacturer or the distributor, associated or integrated with their brand or teaches, in order to protect their customers against a use or consumption of their products that would not guarantee the qualities of these.

  In this case, they will remain protected from the inducing agent, whatever it is, until their use, and will be stuck by the consumer on each packaging or packaging and used at the time of their opening.

  In addition to their temporal indications corresponding to the alteration or expiry scale, for example screen-printed, the witnesses will give indications on the thermal conditions recommended for optimal use of their safety function.

  Drawing 1 represents various non-limiting embodiments of the "measuring, thermo-temporal control" adapted to different packaging.

  FIG. 1: View from above of an upright device (1), not used, consisting, on the one hand, of an opaque lower support, or base, (2) of oxygen-tight material, optionally metallized, comprising a groove (3) or a flattened and glued tube (4) containing the reagent, for example, oxidizable (5), and secondly by a transparent upper protection (6) of oxygen barrier material of suitable porosity, allowing the oxidizing oxygen atoms (7) to slowly migrate, the reagent (5) at the end of its final date of marketing, defined by its manufacturer.

  The upper protection (6) comprises screen printed inscriptions, both time units relating to the alteration or expiry scale and recommendations for use and / or preservation.

  The device comprises a breakable or breakable end (8) into which the reagent (5) penetrates.

  Figure 2: Top view of the same device right (1), in use, for example, on a package of the type of boxes or jars.

  When the end (8) has been broken, for example, when the packaging is opened, the reagent (5) is in contact with the oxygen atoms (7) of the ambient air and the colored oxidizing reaction (9) is propagated. .

  This propagation (9) is carried out with respect to an alteration scale, for example, six days (corresponding to the legal mention: "to be kept between 4 and 6 degrees and to consume within six days "), and shows that the packaging was opened four days ago and that there are two days left to consume the product it contains under the conditions recommended by its manufacturer, guaranteeing its sanitary, organoleptic, nutritional and taste qualities.

  The opposite end of the breakable portion has a progressively red zone (10), symbolizing the proximity of the period before which the product will be consumed.

  FIG. 3: Front view of the same device (1), cylindrical, not used, in the form of a ring adapted, for example, to screw-cap packages (11) of the type of bottles, flasks, cans, tubes ..

  The ring comprising the device is integral, in any way, with the collar for holding the plug on the neck of the package (12).

  The breakable end (8) of the witness, is integral, in any way, the screw cap (11) and will be broken by its rotation, at the opening of the packaging.

  Figure 4: Front view of the same device (1), cylindrical, in use.

  Since the breakable terminus has been broken, the oxidizable reagent (5) is in contact with the oxygen atoms (7) of the ambient air and the colored oxidizing reaction (9) propagates towards the red zone (10).

  Figure 5: Top view of the same device (1) curved, unused, shaped half-crown suitable, for example, screw-type packaging screw caps (11) of the type of bricks, boxes, cans.

  The half-crown comprising the device is secured, in any way, either of the closure clamping collar, or directly of the package (12).

  It can also be reported, for example, stuck on the packaging.

  breakable end (8) of the witness, is secured, in any way, the screw cap (11) and will be broken by its rotation, at the opening of the packaging.

  Figure 6: Front view of the same device (1), curved, in use.

  the breakable end having been broken, the reagent (5) is in contact with the oxygen atoms (7) of the ambient air and the colored oxidizing reaction (9) propagates towards the red zone (10).

  Figure 7: View of 3/4 of the device (1), not used, in a variant suitable for jars or pots type packaging, for example, with screw covers (13).

  The thermo-temporal control comprises both a pellet (14) adhered to the cover (13) and an inductor conduit (15) comprising the oxidizable reagent (5) adhered to the package (12).

  The duct (15) must be cut (16) in order to unscrew the lid.

  Figure 8: View of 3/4 of the device (1), not used, in another variant adapted to the containers 10 of the type of jars or food jars, for example, with screwed lids (13), the interior of which is subject to a depression.

  The thermo-temporal indicator comprises a hollow and breakable tongue (17) (16) whose end is inserted inside the pot.

  Its sectioning allows easy opening of the pot.

  Figure 9: Top view of a particular device (1), adapted to the packaging of the type of trays for prepared dishes.

  The thermo-temporal control is stuck in an angle of the package (12) and isolated by a peelable protection (18) removed during marketing.

  At the expiry date of the product, the thermo-temporal indicator reveals a message (19) warning that the product is no longer consumable.

  The invention relates to various industries, for example, food, medical, pharmaceutical or cosmetic, manufacturing tamperable or perishable products, as well as distributors of these products, in order to protect their customers against a use or consumption of their products which would not be secure and guarantor of the qualities of these.

Claims (6)

claims   1. Method for visualizing and measuring an elapsed and remaining duration and / or the duration of this duration, applied to the indication of the alteration of a perifable or perishable product, characterized in that one creates a parallel and synchronous visible interaction with its invisible alteration, resulting from its exposure to the air, the duration or propagation of the process being a function of the ambient conditions and corresponding to the alteration or expiration index of the alterable product on a alteration or expiry scale specific to the invention and / or the duration defined by the sell-by date of said product.   2 .. Device (1) implementing the method according to claim 1, characterized in that it is the seat or the support (2) (3) (4) of an interaction (5) (9) of nature chemical, biochemical or physical, generated by the ambient air or at least a component naturally present in the ambient air (7) and function of the thermal characteristics of this air, this process visually indicating (9) a duration of exposure to the air of a perifable or perishable product, direct or consequential exposure to the opening (11) (16) of its container (12) or synchronous thereto by communication (8) (15) (16) ) from the inside of the container with ambient air and / or indicating a period of time defined by the sell-by date of the product.   3. Device (1) according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprises active or reactive components (5) modified, physically or chemically by the ambient air and / or naturally occurring oxygen atoms in this air , according to its thermal characteristics, these active or reactive components being isolated from this air (2) (3) (4) (6) (18) by a temporary protection canceled by or during its use and / or by a wall oxygen barrier (6) whose thickness and porosity are adapted to the duration corresponding to a sell-by date, indicated, to be displayed.   4. Device (1) according to claims 2 and 3, characterized in that it comprises chemical elements (5), temporarily isolated from the ambient air (2) (3) (4) (6) (8) ( 15) (16) (18), whose modification of the structure and / or valence and / or covalence, by an agent (7), naturally present in the ambient air, induces or introduces (6) (8) (18) gives them the properties of a dye (9) during its gradual diffusion in the substrate containing them (5), this substrate being positioned opposite a scale g radiated in units of time and having, at its closed end, a colored zone (10).   5. Device (1) according to claims 3 and 4, characterized in that it comprises a conduit (15) seat or support of a visible process (9), the conduit being breakable (16) by or during the use of a container.   6. Device (1) according to claims 3 and 4, characterized in that it comprises a conduit (17) seat or support of a visible process (9), the conduit (17) being inserted into a container subjected to a internal depression, and scored (16), by or when opening the container.