Is this safe to eat? Your food packaging could tell you

Every meal starts with the soil beneath our feet and ends with fresh, safe foods on our tables. 

How our food gets from farm to table, however, has evolved – led by innovative UCalgary researchers and alumni. 

Researchers like Kathryn Wolfe, BSc’21, a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry with the Welch Research Group, and founder of Chromasense. 

“We can talk about us as consumers of food, but we also need to think about how much waste originates in the food-supply chain,” says Wolfe. “It’s astronomical. I was told by a food producer that it’s probably somewhere around 80 per cent.” 

So, Wolfe founded a startup company called Chromasense, which looks at reducing food waste in the food and beverage industry. 

She has designed sensing materials for food packaging that can help consumers know if items are still safe for consumption by predicting the growth or presence of harmful bacteria.