Teaser Materials Science

A new plastic film glows to flag food contaminated with dangerous microbes

Adding the patch to meal packaging could help keep people from getting sick

packaged meat

GUT WRENCHING  Pathogen detectors built into food packaging could help curb the spread of foodborne illness.

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By Maria Temming

- More than 2 years ago

Pathogen detectors built into plastic patches could someday spare you food poisoning.

Carlos Filipe, a chemical engineer at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and colleagues have developed a new kind of flexible film that’s coated in molecules that glow when they touch E.