Visiting Professor
We've interviewed professor Cheng-Ming Chang on 10/14. Professor Chang is an expert in the transportation process for frozen food.
We also interviewed Professor Chien-Chih Yu, a professor of pharmacy, on 10/26.
Precious Suggestions
The first point is that our product is not applicable for the foods that need to be preserved in the fridge. Since the highest temperature that those foods can tolerate is 15 degrees Celsius, our product won’t be useful for them because the temperature we set is 37 degrees Celsius. The second point is the technology of temperature measuring in the low temperature is already perfect. It can be divided into 3 parts. First, if you are looking for temperature monitors with high accuracy, you can buy one for 500 dollars. It can measure the temperature every 10 or 20 seconds, and it will record 64000 information. When you need the information, just simply plug them into a computer and every single data will be clear. Second, if you are looking for something cheaper, you can purchase a card with changeable barcode on it for 3 dollars. There are various inks used to print the barcode, and each kind of them will appear under different temperature through irreversible processes. This is, the highest temperature in the transportation process would be recorded, and all you should do is use a scanner to scan the barcode, and you’ll get the information you want. In conclusion, our product is not adequate for frozen food, and even if we can change the temperature, it’ll still be a challenge for us to beat the current products.
Then is the opinions from professor Chien Chih Yu. First, and most importantly, our product is not applicable to the pharmaceutical industry. There are two main reasons. One is that before pharmaceutical products leave the factory, they have to pass the stability test, and the passing standard is 6 months at 37 degrees Celsius. So, obviously, the transportation process is unlikely to cause the drugs to deteriorate. (Why is this obvious? When the drugs are transported, it is still possible that they will be exposed to temperatures higher than 37. Yet, based on the information I googled, the temperature in a stability test could be as high as 40 or 50.) Second, after the pharmaceutical company successfully invent a kind of drug, the first thing they do is insert some ingredients to make the medicine more stable, for the purpose of passing the stability test. The medicines with those ingredients are thus not that vulnerable to high temperature.
Further Concept
It’s good that we aim the target temperature at 37 degrees Celsius, since no one had done this temperature before. So, we change our interviewee to a corporation that is selling foods preserved under room temperature. Since we’ve learned that the temperature the challenge test (a test to insure the stability) uses is 37 degrees Celsius. The answers we’ve got is that this is a way to decide the expiration date. The company will evaluate the number of germs, the color, the tastes, the pH value, and the nutrition amount to set out the expiration date. Generally, 5 weeks under 37 degrees Celsius will be about the same of one year under room temperature.
Also, professor Chien Chih Yu suggested we aim at the R&D drugs, which are less resistant to temperature change.
