a little baked, i know, but i can never remember how long things in my fridge have been there, and on several occasions have suffered near-fatal food poisoning by eating that cheese steak. So i thought: why suffer any longer? I envisage the off-o-meter as some kind of meat theremometer-like thingie which could be stuck into the offending foodstuff and a liitle needle would move to 'fine' 'off' 'really off' 'poison' or 'death food'. I'd also like one of these that would tell me how strong cheese or coffee is BEFORE i taste it. I would call this invention the strong-o-meter.
-- ninjafishcake, May 01 2003

Smart Food Containers http://www.halfbake...20Food_20Containers
Similar idea. Similar vagueness about how we go about figuring out if something has gone off. [DrCurry, Oct 17 2004]

I call this invention my nose. But see link.
-- DrCurry, May 01 2003


Ant efter wee reemoof thee liitle needle, wee ken tel watt eez metter weth fud!
-- k_sra, May 01 2003


surely if you stick a theremometer-like thingy in something from the fridge, it would register "cold".
-- po, May 01 2003


I'm guessing (s)he wants it to be shaped like a thermometer, but to have the ability to determine freshness. Smells like WIBNI magic to me.
-- snarfyguy, May 01 2003


Or maybe not. The link [-alx] put on Smart Food Containers says:

Toxin Guard™ is a patented diagnostic system that tests food for target pathogens and indicates a positive test by displaying a dramatic visual signal to alert the consumer, retailer or food inspector.
-- snarfyguy, May 01 2003


its part of the packaging [snarfy] and I stopped myself commenting earlier about eat-by dates because I thought this consumer had taken the packaging off
-- po, May 01 2003


Nude food? The very idea!
-- krelnik, May 01 2003


The milk idea is good, but works only for milk. How about little transparent foil stickers that have oxygen sensitive adhesive. When you peel them off their plastic strip to put them on your food container the adhesive is briefly exposed to air. That starts a chemical clock in the adhesive that changes its color. After a week or so you could see a little skull instead of a smiley face.

The system just measures time instead of poison and is therefor not very accurate, but its a one size fits all. Perhaps you can make different stickers for vegetables, meat and beer that have better tuned time scales.
-- kbecker, May 01 2003


by thermometer-like i meant meat thermometer like.......... you know those little things that you stick in meat while its cooking and theres a little needle and a dial, and when the needle gets to the kind of meat your are cooking its done? That is based on heat, time and the weight of the meat. The off-o-meter should take into consideration the temperature of the food. I understand that smelling foods can give some indication of the situation of the food but i have a singularly hopeless sense of smell thanks to allergies, :'-(
-- ninjafishcake, May 02 2003


"on several occasions have suffered near-fatal food poisoning by eating that cheese steak"

...wondering if ninjafishcake ate one too many of these moldy cheese steaks - we haven't heard much from him lately, after all.
-- DrCurry, Mar 02 2006



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