Author: Tohid Didar, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Nano-biomaterials, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, McMaster University

Food insecurity is one of humanity’s most pressing challenges, impacting more than two billion people worldwide. Paradoxically, as so many suffer from lack of access to food, more than 30 per cent of the world’s food is wasted each year, driven by inefficiencies in production, distribution and consumption. Read more: About one-third of the food Americans buy is wasted, hurting the climate and consumers’ wallets Outdated, imprecise and often incorrect labelling systems — such as printed expiry dates — contribute to these huge problems, leading to the unnecessary disposal of safe, healthy food, increased greenhouse gas emissions and financial losses.…