Surabaya, September 2, 2024 – Food waste is one of the environmental issues that continues to be a global concern. Various efforts are made to reduce food waste that contributes greatly to carbon emissions. In the midst of these efforts, students of Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) came up with an innovative solution called Terra Smart Patch, a food freshness indicator technology that can help reduce food waste significantly.
Terra Smart Patch is the work of Terra Team, consisting of seven students from various faculties at UNAIR. The team won a gold medal at the Indonesia Inventors Day (IID) 2024 event thanks to their brilliant innovation. Terra Smart Patch is based on smart halochromic film technology made from natural ingredients such as mocaf starch, kappa carrageenan, and bay flower.
The main function of the Terra Smart Patch is to detect the freshness of food. When the food starts to spoil, the film will change color, so people can know the condition of the food just by looking at the color change. This is of course very helpful in reducing the misjudgment of food that often leads to the waste of food that is actually still suitable for consumption.
“This technology is not only useful for the general public, but also very helpful for those who have limitations, such as color blindness,” said Arinda Melina Putri, a member of the Terra Team. Terra Smart Patch is also equipped with an application that can detect changes in film color, making this technology more inclusive and easy to use.
In addition to technological innovation, Terra Smart Patch also contributes to reducing environmental impact. By reducing the amount of food wasted, it indirectly reduces carbon emissions from food waste. The Terra team hopes that their innovation can be widely implemented and become a solution to the problem of food waste in Indonesia.
Indonesia Inventors Day is an international platform that brings together young innovators from various countries. Terra team from UNAIR successfully brought home three awards at once, namely Gold Medal, Best Productivity and Sustainability Project, and U-Go x Inotek Scholarship from INOTEX Foundation.
