Can this novel gel label cut food waste?

The smart 'bumpy' labels make it easy to assess food freshness in real time

Spotted: Around 70 per cent of the UK’s food waste is generated by households. And one major reason that people at home discard edible food is that they’re packaged with confusing and static date labels, which suggest food has gone off when it’s still perfectly fine to eat. Mimica, a London-based sustainability startup, hopes to change that with its innovative label called a Bump Tag.  

Made from plant-based and temperature-sensitive gels, Bump Tags provide an accurate, dynamic, and real-time indication of the freshness of food depending on how consumers store it. They offer an alternate method to determine food edibility instead of relying on rigid ‘best before’ labels that manufacturers print with worst-case scenarios in mind.

Attached to food and drinks as tags or caps, the gel in Bump labels will remain smooth and firm as long as the food/drink is fresh. But, it will develop pointy bumps when consumers should no longer eat or drink the product. So, to check for real-time freshness, consumers will only have to feel the label. The design is deliberately user-centred and inclusive, so even those with visual impairments can comfortably determine food freshness.

Bump could significantly combat the problem of consumable food wastage by allowing consumers to determine whether products like meat, dairy, seafood, and beverages are still fresh after the printed expiry date.

Mimica’s Founder and Director, Solveiga Pakštaitė, told Springwise that the startup plans to pilot the Bump Tag with meat and fish producers, continue delivering the Bump Cap for beverage companies, and expand Bump into new food categories. Bump also aims to measure the impact of its labels on food waste and customer behaviour and is collaborating with the University of Reading – in an initiative funded by EIT Food and the EU – to conduct consumer tests.

Written By: Joshua Solomon