The present invention relates to a system for checking edibility of packaged products, particularly for packaged liquid products.

More specifically, the invention concerns a system suitable to permit making in a very easy and quick way analyses of beverages and other liquid products, so to evaluate in real time edibility of the same without the need of opening the package wherein the product is preserved.

As it is well known, at present beverage packagings must exhibit in written form the date within which it is advisable consuming the product. This indication is valid only if the contained product is properly preserved, i.e. if the product has been maintained within environments under suitable conditions.

However, average consumer has not available necessary instruments for evaluating if food and/or beverage he/she has purchased is still good or if it maintains all its properties, independently from the information written on the packaging. In other words, if the beverage has not been properly handled in the past, average consumer has not the means for surely establishing if a beverage is in an optimum conservation condition.

Obviously, the above problem is particularly felt for foods and/or beverages that are subjected to a quick deterioration. Among them, we can mention, for example, milk, preservant free fruit juices and like.

It is also known that at present systems exist for evaluating edibility of milk during the production, systems providing, after milking, for measurement of milk specific conductivity, by electrodes immerged within the same milk, and connected with a suitable measurer. The above mentioned system is based on the fact that milk specific conductivity (or of any other specific beverage) is proportional to density of micro organisms present within the same, proliferation of which makes beverage no more edible.

Main drawback of the above mentioned system is that of not permitting the evaluation of the product conservation condition, although it permits a first milk quality control as soon as produced.

Furthermore, said system must be directly applied on the product, so that if the product is already packaged it cannot be used.

In this context it is included the system according to the present invention permitting providing a practical solution for controlling edibility of a packaged product.

It is therefore object of the present invention that of providing a system allowing the instantaneous control of the edibility of a packaged product without the need to open the packaging.

Further object of the present invention is that of evaluating and indicating the possible date of expiry.

It is therefore specific object of the present invention a system for checking edibility of packaged products, particularly for packaged liquid products, said products being packaged within a container for preservation of food, characterised in that it provides a user device for detecting and reading data, and means for detecting the preservation condition of the product, said user device comprising means for interfacing with the container and information and reading means for the detected data, said means for detecting the preservation condition being comprised of means suitable to measure the physical features of said product interacting with the same.

According to the invention, said user device can comprise a processing logic unit, said unit comprising a microprocessor.

Furthermore, according to the invention, said device can comprise a database.

Still according to the invention, said processing logic unit can compare measures obtained from the measurement of said physical features of said product with a plurality of threshold values and/or implement a neuronal expert system suitable to determine the belonging of measurement result of said product physical features to a result aggregate determining edibility of said product, estimating on the basis of said measures possible date of expiry of said product. According to the invention, said reading and information means can comprise a keyboard and/or a liquid crystal display and/or LED diodes and/or an acoustic signalling device.

Preferably, according to the invention, said device can comprise a battery. Still according to the invention, said condition detection means can provide a connection by radio frequency transceiving means with said device.

Furthermore, according to the invention, said device can be connected with other devices by a network.

According to the invention, said condition detection means can comprise a sensor suitable to measure conductance of said product and/or a product temperature detector, preferably a thermocouple or an infrared pyrometer.

Still according to the invention, said condition detection means can comprise a transceiver for detection of frequency response and/or ultrasound transceiving means. Furthermore, according to the invention, said interfacing means can comprise first contacts, provided on said device, and corresponding to second contacts, provided on the surface of said container and communicating with the inside of the same container.

Preferably, according to the invention, said first and second contacts can be comprised of metal, preferably stainless steel.

Still according to the invention said second contacts can be provided on the lower surface of said container, on the container upper surface or on the container plug surface, particularly they can be provided aligned along the plug upper surface diameter, or they can have a circular arrangement, preferably a concentric arrangement.

Always according to the invention, said interfacing means can provide a shaped interface on which said first contacts are provided.

The present invention will be now described, for illustrative but not limitative purposes, according to its preferred embodiments, with particular reference to the figures of the enclosed drawings, wherein: figure 1 shows a first embodiment of an edibility detection system for packaged beverages applied on a liquid product packaging; figure 2 shows a top view of an analyses device of the system according to figure 1; figure 3a shows a perspective view of a first embodiment of a closure plug of a packaging for applying the system according to figure 1; figure 3b shows a side view of the plug according to figure 3a; figure 3c shows a top view of the plug according to figure 3a; figure 4 shows a top view of a second embodiment of a closure plug of a packaging for applying the system according to figure 1 ;

figure 5 shows a perspective view of a third embodiment of a packaging for containing and preserving a food liquid product suitable to apply the system according to the present invention; figure 6 shows a perspective view of a fourth embodiment of a packaging for containing and preserving a food liquid product suitable to apply the system according to the present invention; figure 7 shows the block diagram of the operation of the device of the edibility detection system for beverages according to the present invention; figure 8 shows a further embodiment of the edibility detection system for packaged beverages applied on a liquid product packaging; and figure 9 shows a top view of an analyses device of the system according to figure 8. Making reference to figures 1 and 2 of the enclosed drawings, it is possible to observe a first embodiment of the edibility detection system for packaged beverages according to the invention, generically indicated by reference number 1.

Said system 1 comprises a reading device 2, that will be handled by the user, and provided with a recess 3, obtained on its lower surface, said recess being shaped in such a way to couple with the beverage container, that will be described in the following.

Said cavity 3 provides, on its inner shaped surface, metal contacts 4, interacting with corresponding contacts 5, also made up of metal, provided on the container surface 6 of the product to be analysed, and particularly in this case on the surface of the plug 7 of the same container 6.

Said contacts 5 provided on the container 6 must be in direct contact with the product. Examining figure 2, it is possible to note in greater detail device

2 that, in the embodiment shown, provides a circular recess 3 (shown in transparency in figure 2), suitable to be coupled with containers provided with a circular plug 7.

Device 2 further provides a plurality of buttons 9, necessary for selecting the kind of product to be analysed and a battery 2a, permitting making the same portable and that in this case is a part of the device 2 chassis.

Besides the display 8, user optical interaction means provides two LED diodes 10 that, in the present embodiment, have a different colour, e.g. red and green.

Obviously, electronics and control programs, which will be not described in greater detail in the following, will be provided inside the device 2.

Therefore, the user, after having placed the device 2 on container 6, in this case on the plug 7, coupling contacts 4 and contacts 5, selects the kind of product to be analysed and then obtains in real time information about edibility conditions of the packaged product, reading the same on display 8 of device 2.

If, after the analyses, the product is edible, green diode lights up, otherwise the red diode lights up. It is also possible to provide acoustic signalling devices (not shown in the figures). Figures 3a, 3b and 3c show plug 7 with the positioning of contacts 5 aligned each other along the diameter of the upper surface.

Figure 4 shows a plug 7 with circular contacts 5. this embodiment allows applying the device 1 without taking into account alignment between device 1 and container 6 for superimposing contacts 4 and 5.

As far as contacts 4 and 4, both on device 2 and on container 6, are concerned, electrical contacts 4' and 5', or thermal contacts 4" and 5", are provided. Said contacts 4, 5 are made up of food compatible metals, preferably of stainless steel. Coming now to observe figures 6 and7, a further possible embodiment of the system according to the invention is shown, with a different positioning of contacts 5, provided on the container surface 6, particularly on the lower surface, instead of on the plug as in the previous embodiment. Container 6 shown in figure 5 is comprised of paperboard, such as Tetrapack ^® , while container of figure 6 is a bottle. Obviously, for this kind of arrangement it is necessary to provide a coupling mode of contacts 4 and 5 different from the one described in the above.

As to the mode by which the system according to the invention carries out analyses and edibility prevision, it is possible making detection of different variables, some of these being described in the following, each one of them obviously providing its own analyses methodology.

Conductance analyses

Device 2 measures conductance by electric contacts 4' and 5', said conductance being a function of density of micro organisms contained within milk, or other beverage, and of temperature. When measured specific conductance passes one or more preset threshold values, system detects not-edibility of the product.

Frequency response analyses

Device 2, by contacts 4', 5', analyses response of the product subjected to a shock wave with a preset frequency - amplitude - shape that is sent on the product. On the basis of the transfer function thus obtained, it is possible obtaining information about the product properties.

Ultrasound response analyses

It is known that ultrasounds are widely and successfully used for analysing animal tissues and analysing chemical compositions. In this case, device 2 has an ultrasound emitter and a suitably filtered microphone for receiving the same. Received wave is examined when an ultrasound pulse is emitted, and on the basis of the features of the same it is possible to understand the preservation condition of the product.

Temperature analyses Temperature detection is very important for understanding the food preservation condition. It is in fact known that food preserved at a lower temperature have a better preservation. This measure can be particularly efficient if correlated with the others. Furthermore, presence of the above-mentioned microorganisms changes both conductibility and frequency response of a product in function of the preservation temperature. Therefore, it can be understood that product temperature is really important for a proper interpretation of the other variables detected.

Thermal condition of the product inside the packaging is detected by a temperature sensor (thermocouple) contained within device 2 and connected with contact 4".

In order to more deeply examine how device 2 carries out above mentioned analyses, the block diagram of figure 7 will be now examined, showing main functional units of the same device 2.

Particularly, it is provided a logic unit 11 connected with an inside data base 12. Logic unit 11 is interfaced, by a connection and/or filtering interface 13, with temperature 14, conductivity 15 and frequency response and/or ultrasound 16 sensors. Buttons 9 (or possibly other

selection means) are connected to the logic unit 11, for selection of the product to be analysed.

After the selection of the product to be analysed by a user, data detected by sensors 14, 15 and 16 are filtered by interface 13, processed by logic unit 11 and stored within database 12. Then, results of processing are sent to LEDs 10 and display 8, through which said logic unit 11 communicates to the user edibility of the product and an estimate of the remaining expiry time.

Logic unit 11 can compare results of n variables examined (where n is the number of analyses carried out on the product) by a series of preset threshold values. However, said logic unit 11 can be efficiently implemented also by a neuronal expert system, that must be suitably experienced in order to determine belonging of n-dimensional result to group (n-dimensional as well) describing the edibility condition of the product. In this way a more correct estimate of the product condition is obtained thanks to the multidimensional correlated analyses of variables.

Process for implementing neuronal networks is well known. As to the experiencing the present system, a statistically meaningful number of tests are carried out in the laboratory so as to allow tracing, with the highest possible resolution, limits of result groups being associated with different product preservation conditions. This means quantifying said conditions distinguishing firstly the edibility condition and the not-edibility condition and secondly the different preservation levels.

The above permits to the system to establish, for each possible result of the n-dimensional measures, firstly edibility of the product and, secondly, an estimate of edibility expiry term.

Making now reference to figures 8 and 9, it is possible to observe a further embodiment of the system according to the present invention. It is particularly noted a packaging 6, with plug 7 provided with contacts 5. Said contacts are coupled with a detection and transmission unit 17, providing contacts 4 on the surface of concave recess 3 obtained at the bottom.

Said detection and transmission unit 17 comprises detection sensors 14 and/or 15 and/or 16 for the variable to be analysed, besides a transceiving unit (not shown in the figures). By said transceiving unit, said detection and transmission unit 17 sends detected results to a centralised

processing unit (not shown in the figures) making analyses as described in the above.

The above system permits monitoring and analysing of a plurality of packagings or containers at the same time, making the present invention useful also for controlling the preservation condition of the products for example within stores.

On the basis of the previous specification, it can be noted that the basic feature of the present invention is that of being able making a product edibility analysis maintaining the packaging closed. An advantage of the present invention consists in possibility of making the food edibility analyses available also for a consumer.

Another advantage of the present invention is possibility of being able to carry out the above analyses even before purchasing the product. The present invention has been described for illustrative but not limitative purposes, according to its preferred embodiments, but it is to be understood that modifications and/or changes can be introduced by those skilled in the art without departing from the relevant scope as defined in the enclosed claims.