Shelf life calculator with color changing sensor

“Surprisingly positive,” Raymond Oosterveld – Jarja Floral describes the reactions of farmers to their new color-changing sensors that show the freshness of flowers. 

The FMA (Floral Merchandising Aid), serves to determine when floral goods require to cut price for a quick sale. A partially aluminum sensor being put on the retail sleeves shows the vase life of the product — the color turns from gray (full vase life) to yellow (50% vase life).

From concept to reality

“From the greenhouse, we noticed that queries mostly arose from the cold chain and not merchandising properly, as the feature of the flower was normally good. Inefficient inventory management leads to grown waste and troubled costumers. Conclusively margins decline as does revenue. So, we thought to create something that shows the freshness of the flower,” Raymond explains. “We noticed that Evigence Sensors previously had the technique of freshness sensors. That sensor used loaf, meats, fruits, and vegetable packaging. We believed it might use for flowers as well.”

Aluminum eating glue

The sensor created collectively with a retailer. In the example of its performances, it has a yellow tulip with a see-through window so that one can notice the aluminum to which the sticker is joined to. The aluminum fades over the days, and the yellow background will appear. “The method is that the glue diffuses the aluminum. So, if the days completed, the entire tulip changes to yellow. It is adaptable, so if any flower bouquet has a more prolonged shelf life, the sensor supplier gives them a thicker aluminum layer. Then, it will get more days for the glue to diffuse the aluminum.” The ‘eating’ or oxidation process is temperature-dependent: lower temp, slower reaction, higher temp, faster reaction. The sensor for the tulip in the pictures has a 4-day activation length at 15 C or 60 F.