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:

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.

Timestrip® has a new range of Food Temp™ indicators which have been specifically developed for food shipping and storage.

The newly designed temperature breach window on the Food Temp™ 5°C indicates breaches lasting between two to four hours.

Why 2 Hour – 4 Hours?

In the food industry, food with the potential to grow hazardous pathogens are kept safe from developing harmful levels of bacteria using a HACCP Plan with a 2 Hour - 4 Hour Rule.

If the food is exposed to a temperature breach for less than 2 hours, bacteria have not been developing quickly and can be returned to the safe temperature.

Users can see that the breach window on the Food Temp™ indicator has remained white and can return products to the safe temperature.

If exposed to breach temperatures above 2 Hours, but under 4 Hours- bacteria levels have begun to rapidly multiply but have not reached dangerously high levels.

When users see blue in the breach window, it will alert them they must use the food immediately and cannot be returned to storage.

After a 4 hour exposure to a temperature breach, bacteria have had the time to multiply to unsafe levels and cannot be consumed.

A completely blue window on a Food Temp™ indicator lets a user know that the food product is unsafe to use and must be immediately discarded.

For more information, see our Food Temp Indicator page.

Indications for Use: The Timestrip (R) Blood Temp 10 (BT10) blood bag indicator is a temperature-sensitive indicator that can be used by blood banks and transfusion services to maintain quality control in blood storage and transportation.

From Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine

https://magazine.jhsph.edu/2015/fall/features/the-dream/index.html

Parker is a multinational company with over 58,000 employees worldwide and employee health and safety in the workplace is of primary importance. Parker has developed a series of initiatives aimed at promoting employee health, driven by Human Resources under the banner of Wellness, of which encouraging employees to drink more fresh water is key.

It is well recognized that the majority of adults drink insufficient water and should, throughout each day, drink up to 2 litres of water to stay hydrated. Moreover, drinking un-sweetened water helps cut intake of other less suitable liquids such as sugary, soft drinks with obvious health and dental benefits!

This specific initiative is so important to Parker that top management directly sponsor filtered drinking water solutions by employees in the workplace. The Parker Hiross Zander division, based in Padova, Italy, has been charged with promoting the installation and use of water fountain and drinking bottle systems for the 15,000 employees in over 100 sites in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Access in the workplace to fresh, filtered water by employees is critical to encouraging drinking water. However, reducing plastic waste is also critical to Parker so we do not want to use water dispensers with large water bottles nor encourage the use of disposable plastic cups. This is why we have created a package of water fountains with built in filtration, which are to be piped to the mains water supply, combined with dedicated employee drinking bottles to provide an ecological drinking water system.

Access means that each Parker site is being encouraged to place water fountains where their employees actually work, in areas of frequent employee use, and not just in the canteen and next to the coffee machine. Site layout and employee working concentration defines where and how many fountains are needed!

Multiple filtered drinking solutions!

We have five versions available to allow sites to match versions to local country tastes and needs and all have built in active carbon and sediment filtration and Ultraviolet lamp anti-bacterial systems. For example, we have found that in our German sites the sparkling water (CO2) fountain is very popular whereas in our UK sites the HOT water fountain is very popular for making tea and other hot drinks.

For standard use we have a cold water and ambient water version and we also have a similar version without an internal tank to simplify maintenance. In case of no clean public water supply being available we have a reverse osmosis version. We also have an under the counter filtration system without refrigeration for use with kitchen sinks and there are stand alone filters to combat hard water and bacteria.

We also use a Timestrip enabled three month Parker service reminder key-fob for use with activated carbon filters and to encourage optimum hygiene of our Parker filtered drinking water fountains through quarterly filtration service calls using our unique Parker service reminder.

Hygiene: filtration changes!

Optimum hygiene is promoted through quarterly filtration service calls through the use of our unique Parker service reminder (right) which uses Timestrip technology based on ambient temperature and no batteries.

Reduce waste, improve health!

By making water convenient and easily accessible we are increasing the likelihood of employees consuming fresh, un-sweetened water. Paired with our Parker branded range of BPA-free plastic, transparent and fun to use 500ml water bottles, employees have a sustainable way of continually drinking water throughout the day.

By eliminating disposable plastic bottles, drastically cutting the use of disposable cups, and stop having to use large bottle dispensers which risk injuries and require space and handling as well as leasing costs, we also help cut plastic waste.

- Mark Harvey, Divisional Aftermarket and Technical Support Manager for Hiross Zander Division of Parker