Organic Nontoxic Rechargeable Batteries in Food Packaging: A Feasibility Study

Abstract

Traditional energy sources, such as alkaline batteries, cannot be in direct contact with food due to health hazards. However, a recently developed battery, constituted only by food-grade materials, overcomes this limitation as it can be used in direct contact with food without any contamination risk. In this work, we assess the feasibility of adopting an edible battery to power up traditional electronics for sensors-on-food or sensors-in-package applications. The feasibility study is divided into three main analyses. First, the lifetime of the battery against multiple charge–discharge cycles is assessed. In our experiments, the battery maintains a capacity of ∼ 6 μA·h after 100 cycles. Then, the study progressed to resistive sensors. As a test case, we demonstrated that data obtained from thermistors and photoresistors powered up by the battery have a cross-correlation coefficient > 0.99 with respect to using a traditional power supply as the energy source. Finally, the edible battery is successfully used to power operational-amplifier -based circuits performing amplification and filtering. This study indicates that, although more research is necessary to enhance the battery's performance, edible batteries represent a feasible alternative for supplying power for a limited time to basic low-power circuits.