Time’s Up

From Japan comes the neat idea of meat labels that go dark when the food becomes unsafe, preventing bar code scanning. Fresh Labels work by detecting levels of ammonia in the meat, preventing stores from tampering with expiration dates, a recent problem in Japan.

I love the idea, since it focuses on when the food actually isn’t fit for eating, not a comically cautious “best-before” date or an ambiguous “sell-by” date. Of course, the discussion now would be around what “unsafe to eat” means.

I’m wondering: do these stickers also have an expiration date? Any Japanese readers out there able to do some translating? Here’s a better image, from the designer’s site.

In addition, since the topic was posted on a design site, I’d be remiss if I didn’t compliment Fresh Labels’ hourglass shape. Clever!