Saturday morning I made French Toast using milk that was past the expiry date. While I thought it smelled fine, my wife (who has a much more accurate sense of smell) told me it was spoiled. While we argued about it, I wished I had an easy way to tell the quality of the milk without depending on some printed date that doesn't take in to account environmental conditions.
Turns out British milk producers Cravendale has a solution to the problem -- a so-called "magic milk jug" that tests the pH level of the milk and reports back if it is safe to drink or not. Besides improving marital relations, Cravendale estimates that over 300,000 tons of milk is thrown away, almost a third of which is totally safe to drink. In fact, milk is the most thrown away food in the UK!
While the industrial design of the container leaves a lot to be desired (especially the display), I'm all in favor of smart containers helping consumers understand their contents better. The product is still in R&D, but I hope it gets released soon.
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