Logo of the Information System for Agriculture and Food Research

Information System for Agriculture and Food Research

Information platform of the Federal and State Governments

IQ-FRESHLABEL - Developing novel intelligent labels for chilled and frozen food products, promoting the influence of smart labels application on waste reduction, food quality and safety in the European supply chains

Collaborative Project


Project code: 243423
Contract period: 01.08.2010 - 31.01.2014
Budget: 1857470 Euro
Coordinating institution: Bremerhaven Technology-Transfer-Centre

IQ-FRSHLABEL will develop two novel innovative intelligent labels. One will monitor the time and temperature of frozen products, the other also the oxygen content in modified atmosphere packed fresh food. Controlling post production life cycle of food is important element of food supply chain. Improper handling of product during transport, storage and in households results in quality defects, increases risk of microbial growth, subsequent spoilage and edible waste of food. The FRESHLABEL project succeeded in development of the first generation of commercially available and applied Time-Temperature-Indicators (TTIs) for fresh products. FESHLABEL demonstrated that number of rejected products and, thus, economical losses within a supply chain can be considerably reduced. However, the project showed that there are still many unexploited application areas for smart labels, which IQ-FRESHLABEL will reduce by the development of novel intelligent labels for the packaging of meat and fish products. IQ-FRESHLABEL will develop TTIs for the application on frozen fish products. These TTIs have to meet different demands compared to the TTIs for fresh products. Storage time is much longer and the temperature difference between optimal storage and risky high temperatures is much higher, but quality deterioration occurs already at slightly increased temperatures. Furthermore, IQ-FRESHLABEL will develop intelligent labels for modified atmosphere packaged (MAP) fresh poultry meat. These labels will show a colour change when the modified atmosphere, which has most cases a high level of carbon dioxide and a low level of oxygen is changing. This can happen when packages are damaged. Next to the research on novel intelligent labels, IQ-FRESHLABEL will conduct consumer and retailer behaviour study with respect to intelligent labels application in order to support design of novel TTIs in a unique approach. Cost benefit analysis will be conducted to estimate cost of smart labels application.

show more show less

Collaborative Projects

Definition of requirements and legislations

Leading institution: The Norwegian Seafood Service Office

Oxygen TTI development for MAP food

Leading institution: Institute of Animal Science

Critical temperature TTI developement for frozen food

Leading institution: National Technical University of Athens

Socio-economical impact

Leading institution: Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd

Training and Dissemination

Leading institution: Romanian Meat Association

Project Management

Leading institution: Bremerhaven Technology-Transfer-Centre

Advanced Search