Not to be sniffed at: 'Artificial nose' that spots food about to go off in your fridge

By WILL HALLOWELL, NEWS REPORTER Published: 00:47, 4 May 2026 | Updated: 00:47, 4 May 2026 The UK's first 'artificial nose' capable of sniffing out when food in your fridge is about to go off has been created. Newcastle University says the high-tech 'nose' could help slash household waste by detecting when grub has really expired. The device uses a sensor-enabled system fitted inside a fridge to detect environmental changes in food.  This sends an alert to an app as food approaches its due date, ensuring it is eaten before it spoils. Academics say the unit has been checked and tested across a range of food types including fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy. Dr Oktay Cetinkaya, a lecturer in sensor systems at the university, said: 'One of the major goals is to provide users with statistics on how much they purchase and waste – with its economical and environmental impact – thereby encouraging a behavioural change, which is key to waste less in principle.' He said: 'The system functions as an "artificial nose" by combining multiple sensor signals to detect early signs of spoilage, including odours that can't be seen.' 'The key advantage of the Waste-Not! app is its ability to fuse low-cost sensor data into an objective measure of freshness.  Dr Oktay Cetinkaya is pictured holding one of the in-fridge sensor nodes that gather data on how much food people purchase and waste The in-fridge sensor nodes gather data on temperature, relative humidity, gases emitted, and ambient light  'This supports more informed decisions, improving both safety and effectiveness.  'In contrast, existing approaches rely heavily on expiry dates, user judgement, or passive sensors that provide only limited air-quality information.' The Waste-Not! 'nose' measures temperature, relative humidity and gases emitted at varying stages of food spoilage before uploading the details to a database.    The results are compared to a fridge inventory so that the device can detect mouldy food. Dr Cetinkaya added that unlike existing apps, Waste-Not! integrates 'sensor-informed objective freshness' into decision-making. According to the Waste and Resources Action Programme, 10.7million tonnes offood was wasted in 2021.  Edible food waste from households was valued at £17billion. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.