Timestrip has a new white paper detailing the importance of monitoring time and temperature parameters during storing and transporting to point of care
For more information on how Timestrip UK Ltd is handling the COVID-19 pandemic, please see this post.
From integrating TTIs used in virus specimen shipping, to vaccine reminder bands, Timestrip has solutions for all sectors of the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets.
Timestrip UK Ltd was featured in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Packaging Sourcer this month for the line of smart indicators developed for the healthcare industry.
Read the full article below to see how Timestrip indicators are used on everything from biological specimens and pharmaceutical products to the hospital curtains.
We stock electronic temperature indicators with PDF reporting capabilities, along with chemical based time and temperature indicators.
For further reading about our unique time and temperature applications - click here >
Timestrip®, the developer of smart indicator technology, has developed an important new range of indicators to help healthcare professionals meet WHO guidelines in the handling of virus specimens.
The Timestrip Virus Specimen Transport (VST) series has been specially formulated to provide a clear indication when key temperature levels are exceeded.
These indicators monitor when specimens - including coronavirus – have been stored for too long and outside the required temperature range for reliable testing.
Four products make up the VST range.
Together they form an essential tool to support hospitals, surgeries and medical laboratories in storing and transporting virus specimens correctly, and preserving their integrity.
A virus specimen's exposure to temperature over time is critical to its lifetime, so the VST series includes a unique integrating indicator, the Timestrip VST TTI, which mirrors the accumulated time-temperature history of the virus specimen during transport and storage.
Virology specimen collection guidelines state that most viruses remain stable at 4°C for 2-3 days, so VST TTI is effective with a wide range of virus types.
Designed to meet specific regulations, the TTI label will indicate when 72 hours of chilled storage has elapsed by showing a clear visual discard window. At high temperatures, the label will show the discard indication within just a few hours.
Scientists and clinicians know that bacteria and viruses deteriorate much more quickly as temperatures increase, and also as exposure time increases. For example, at 50-55°C, coronavirus becomes non-infectious within just a few hours.
The VST range of indicators includes a product specifically for monitoring temperatures exceeding 53°C.
FDA and WHO regulations state that it is important to avoid freezing and thawing of specimens.
The Timestrip VST 0°C will reliably track a thawing event. If the ambient temperature rises above freezing, the indicator will show the cumulative period of thawing.
Timestrip VST Fridge Combi includes two indicators. One unique element indicates when a period of 72 hours has passed during chilled conditions (2-8°C), aligning with FDA / WHO regulations.
The other element provides a temperature breach indication, giving a clear signal when conditions have exceeded the regulated upper chilled limit of 8°C/46°F during storage or transport.
“As part of the fight against coronavirus, our new VST virus specimen transport range will help support scientists by monitoring specimens from collection right through to point of test, giving confidence in the integrity of the specimen, and thus the test results.
Nora Murphy, Commercial Director of Timestrip UK Ltd
These simple yet effective products provide a solution to a real problem in the storage and handling of virus specimens, including Covid-19. Medics and laboratory technicians can now have an explicit signal when specimens have breached the safe zone of thermal exposure and are invalid for testing.”
The VST is expected to be the first of many speciality ranges to be offered by Timestrip that provide practical solutions for pathology, microbiology, mycobacteria and other laboratory specimen handling, where temperature and time monitoring are required.
The new Virus Specimen Transport products are available now from Timestrip.
for release 11th June 2020
As part of the measures to control the spread of coronavirus, many organisations, from hospitals to care homes, are tightening up procedures that involve touching surfaces.
From hospital curtains to pharmaceutical carts to floors, sanitation protocols need strict adherence to prevent contamination more than ever.
In response to this risk, sanitisers and sterilization products such as wipes and solutions are increasingly being put to use. As far as current medical knowledge knows, the virus is very sensitive to the cleaning and disinfecting agents currently in use.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that ‘enveloped’ viruses such as COVID-19 are the easiest type to inactivate using disinfectants.1
A spokesperson for the American Hospital Association says that while frequent cleaning is standard, hospitals are giving special attention to "high-touch surfaces such as in-room phones, TV/nurse calls, light switches and cords, handles, drawer pulls, bed rails, tray tables and bathroom fixtures.”2
However, sterilizing solutions will only achieve maximum efficacy while still fresh. They must be used within a specified period after being opened and have a limited shelf life.
Timestrip time indicators can be a valuable part of the infection control processes here, and a range of standard products is available.
Timestrip Time indicators are a visual alert that a disinfectant is out of date
Timestrip has a wide range of time monitoring indicators for hospitals in stock for quick ordering and shipment.
For monitoring the shelf life of proprietary sterilisers, our stock 1 and 2 year Timestrip Time indicators are available.
Disinfectant solutions such as medical device sterilizers, dental disinfectants and hospital waterline disinfectants can have shorter shelf lives after preparation.
Timestrip Time 7 Day indicators are a stocked solution that has time markers for 1, 3 and 7 days.
Custom Healthcare Disinfectant Solutions
Timestrip custom solutions are available for specific time or temperature monitoring requirements. We design and manufacture solutions to suit your procedure, product or brand.
For stock (or custom) indicators, custom backing cards can be designed.
They can communicate to hospital workers on sanitisation procedures, give a place to securely attach indicators and and can be kept for validation of protocol.
Shorter time indicators monitor sterilization procedures with critical time components. For example, hospital grade disinfectants with a 1, 3, 5 or 10 minute wait time for max efficacy.
Custom designed time indicators can provide confirmation that an area has been adequately sterilized with markers for 3, 5 and 10 minutes.
Prepared solutions might have specialised shelf life monitoring times.
We can design a Time indicator with monitoring time from a few minutes to 2 years and even include multiple times within that range. Timestrip liquid-based and electronic indicators are ideal as cleaning reminders.
Contact us to get your hospital disinfection time monitoring solution today.
1 Infection Control Today "Surface Disinfection When Fighting COVID-19"
2 NPR "Ships, Planes And Other Spots Are Getting A 'Deep Clean.' What's That Mean?" link
During the current coronavirus outbreak, many of us are reviewing our shopping habits. Online purchasing can be a good way to avoid unnecessary personal contact. But what about chilled or frozen food?
How can we be sure that delivered supplies are kept at the right temperature, and stay safe to eat throughout their journey to our homes or offices? Some folks are even waiting longer before handling any food delivery, making storage conditions even more important.
Timestrip temperature indicators are available for producers and retailers to verify correct food transport conditions, reassuring the end customer that all is well.
Having a clearly visible indicator also helps encourage good operating procedures. When the boxes are opened, consumers can see if food has been kept at a safe temperature. If a temperature breach occurs, you can see a colour change from white to blue in the TTI window.
Here are a few companies that have adopted Timestrip solutions for safe food delivery:
Choicelunch delivers fresh lunch food and used Timestrip PLUS smart indicators applied to the
inside of each cool box so they have a simple, highly accurate and clearly visible readout showing
how long the contents have been above the critical chilled threshold.
Choicelunch (and the State Health Inspectors) love the tamper-proof integrity of the Timestrip PLUS indicators.
From Home With Love provides hundreds of home cooks across the USA with the packaging
necessary to send home cooked frozen meals to loved ones away at college, on work assignment or
on military service. They are including Timestrip PLUS Food indicators to reassure recipients that their lovingly prepared meals were stored below 5°C (40°F) while in transit.
Leading fruit and vegetable wholesaler Oliver Kay Produce has adopted Timestrip technology to help customers comply with temperature guidelines for fresh produce. Oliver Kay began placing Timestrip indicators on its crates to indicate clearly where the temperature breaches were
occurring, enabling them to show customers that they were not storing produce correctly.
It stopped complaints for problems over which we had no control and also enabled customers to improve shelf-life and quality of produce at their own locations.
Chris O’Connor, MD at Oliver Kay.
Ready-to-cook dinner packages
A couple of years ago, a study into delivery of ‘home meal kits’ by Rutgers-Tennessee State University suggested that nearly 47% of 684 items researchers ordered arrived with surface temperatures above 40°F (5°C), rendering them unsafe to consume.
Surface temperatures varied significantly among products in the same shipment, and even on different locations on the same product. Timestrip has developed low-cost time and temperature indicators (TTIs) that can be placed inside meal delivery boxes to monitor the internal temperature.
When the boxes are opened, consumers can see if a temperature breach has occurred, shown by a colour change from white to blue in the TTI window. Each Timestrip TTI includes a serial code to ensure batch traceability, and Timestrip indicators can be kept and/or recorded as proof of a temperature breach.
Stock & Custom Home Meal & Food Delivery Solutions
Timestrip designed and manufactures a line of low-cost time and temperature indicators (TTIs) that can be placed inside the food delivery boxes to monitor the internal temperature. Custom products can be manufactured to meet a range of compliance temperatures used in the food industry.
Timestrip has a new white paper detailing the importance of preventing virus transmission in light of the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
For more information on how Timestrip UK Ltd is handling the COVID-19 pandemic, please see this post.
Exclusive Timestrip Feature on That's West Anglia. Watch below:
Transcript:
This little sticker plays an important part in measuring temperature breaches for seafood. The chemicals inside the indicator react to changes in temperature, irreversibly revealing any instances which might have impacted the quality of the product.
We supply into sectors like healthcare, blood, pharmaceutical, life science, and food which are all highly regulated sectors. These are regulated by the WHO, the FDA and other regulatory bodies globally.
At Timestrip, we have solutions that help the client adhere to those regulations and enable them to have confidence that their products are getting to the end location in the right status.
The technology can be adapted for a range of purposes.
We have time indicators that span 1 hour right up to 24 months and it's used as a visual impact reminder to do something. And that could be anything from replacing a water filter in your home or replacing the filter in your cooker hood.
But not only things in the home it's also used in the profession where healthcare professionals are reminded to renew or replace or change their antibacterial curtains. As well as replacements of cannulas, catheters, IV lines, and other applications like the prompt endoscope reprocessing which is a regulation and we help adhere to those regulations.
In healthcare the temperature indicators are used to ensure the safety of transported blood bags.
Regulations say if blood goes above 10°C through transportation it has to be discarded. Our indicators are proof it hasn't gone above 10°C if it hasn't and those blood bags can be put back in and reassigned to other patients.
Once the breach has happened they are non reversible. So once it has happened it can not be reversed or changed in anyway and this is one of the positive characteristics of the technology itself.
The sensors help eliminate waste and ensuring integrity of products. The company's new eTimestrip takes a step further towards data loggers.
Our eTimestrip is an indicator which can run for a long time because of being an electronic device. It is used for one or more temperature breaches. It has a traffic light system: red, green and amber to indicate to the user a temperature breach has occurred. And also it has the ability, by use of an app, to capture those breaches.
It captures the level of breach, the duration of breach, and also the time and date it occurred. This information is then uploaded to an application. the product itself is compliant to the 21CF Part 11D regulation which is very beneficial for pharmaceutical shipments, and highly valued and regulated product shipments.
With the press of a button the indicator gets to work. It may look simple, but this tiny piece of smart technology is as smart as it needs to be to carry out its mission. Science magazine, the Scientific American, named sensor technology as one of the emerging technologies for 2019, with potential to provide major benefits to society in the future.
Timestrip has won a mention in the ‘Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2019’ by the prestigious magazine Scientific American.
The December edition analysed the emerging technology trends that are ‘poised to rattle the status quo’.
Timestrip was identified as one of the technologies with the potential to vastly improve food safety with its sensors to monitor the quality and safety of food.
Scientific American worked with the World Economic Forum to evaluate those trends that are attracting a lot of interest, and have the potential to provide major benefits to societies and economies. The selected few are expected to make significant inroads in the future.
Timestrip Food Temp indicators have been designed with FDA guidance in mind
READ MORE about our emerging technology in food safety
Read the full list on the Scientific American site.
Timestrip ® – the innovative developer of ‘smart indicator’ technology – has launched a completely new category of product: Electronic Temperature Indicators
eTimestrip
The small, robust electronic Temperature Indicate and Report (TIR) devices. They provide a simple and reliable way to detect temperature breaches during product storage and transportation.
The compact electronic temperature breach indicators are affixed to product packages. eTimestrip clearly shows the temperature conditions during the entire supply chain, including the ‘last mile’.
Traffic light LEDs on the device show status information. Users can download the free smartphone app to retrieve data wirelessly.
A more detailed report can be generated and stored. This shows the date, time and extent of any temperature breaches that may have occurred.
By providing an auditable timed record of breaches, the electronic indicators open up a wide range of applications. They can monitor cost effectively throughout the supply chain.
eTimestrip will be used in pharmaceutical, healthcare, bulk food and other high value applications with temperature sensitive products.
eTimestrip indicators fit between traditional chemical indicators and expensive data loggers. The electronic temperature indicators provide a cost effective solution without complex software or special training to use.
The electronic temperature indicators
At launch, two products are available with a a measuring range of -30 °C to 70 °C:
eTimestrip TIR 2-8°C is designed principally for pharmaceuticals shipments.
eTimestrip TIR No Freeze 0°C is intended for use on products sensitive to freezing temperatures.
The addition of eTimestrip to our existing portfolio of temperature and time monitoring technology is part of our vision for Timestrip as a progressive, innovate business.
Our clients in a wide range of sectors look to Timestrip products to give peace of mind throughout the transportation and storage lifecycle of their goods.
Nora Murphy, Commercial Director of Timestrip
The new eTimestrip electronic temperature breach indicators are now available, and complement the company’s core product offering of stock, bespoke and custom branded indicators.
In December, Timestrip was identified in the ‘Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2019’ by Scientific American magazine. The report analysed the technology trends that are ‘poised to rattle the status quo’, with the potential for sensors to vastly improve the safety and quality of food.
We will be showing off our Timestrip Seafood indicator for reduced oxygen packaging at the Seafood Expo in Boston starting on Sunday 11 March 2018. Stop by Booth 1388 to get a sample of our Food indicators.
If you can't make it to the show, Download our Timestrip Seafood Expo Press Kit PDF to find out more on how we utilize Timestrip temperature indicators for the Food Industry.