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Novel temperature-sensitive label based on thermochromic ink for hot food packaging and serving applications

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Abstract

Changes in the lifestyle of the millennials have started a revolution in the food industry. They started preferring to have effortless ready-to-eat or cook meals (RTE) or fast-food chains and restaurants, and at the same time, they expect the food to be served hot. Nonetheless, it is impossible to know whether the desired temperature has been maintained in the RTE pouches or delivered food. Employing thermochromic materials as temperature indicators on the packaging can communicate the temperature of food inside. This work proposes a thermochromic coating composed of silver tetraiodomercurate (STIM) and cellulose acetate in the form of a coated label as a temperature indicator. From the thermochromism property of STIM, it was observed that the phase transition occurs at temperatures between 323 and 333 K. Colorimetric analysis of the labels revealed that the color changes from yellow to orange to red, indicating normal temperature and higher temperatures, respectively. Microstructural analysis of the label via FESEM reveals a uniform coating formation with traces of STIM agglomerates. Rub resistance and adhesion tests proved that the solid particles have good adhesion with the substrate and no scuffing traces. Hence, silver tetraiodomercurate-based thermochromic pigment can be used as a temperature indicator label for hot beverages, ready-to-cook retort pouches, and hot-served food delivered through apps for better communication of products’ temperature.

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Acknowledgements

Author Kirtiraj K. Gaikwad would like to sincerely thank the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India, for the financial support provided under the Start-Up Research Grant (SRG) (SRG/2021/001549).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paper Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, 247667, India

    Jitendra Kumar, Konala Akhila, Pardeep Kumar, Ram Kumar Deshmukh & Kirtiraj K. Gaikwad

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  1. Jitendra Kumar
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  2. Konala Akhila
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  3. Pardeep Kumar
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  4. Ram Kumar Deshmukh
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  5. Kirtiraj K. Gaikwad
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Contributions

JK: Investigation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Data curation, Writing—Original Draft, KA: Investigation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Data curation Pardeep Kumar: Investigation, Formal analysis Experimental, Resources, RKDe: Experimental, KK. Gaikwad: Conceptualization, Methodology, Resources, Writing—Original Draft, Manuscript editing and review, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Kirtiraj K. Gaikwad.

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Kumar, J., Akhila, K., Kumar, P. et al. Novel temperature-sensitive label based on thermochromic ink for hot food packaging and serving applications. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 6061–6069 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12147-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12147-8

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