Design / Motivation and Purpose

In our daily life, we usually take the refrigerator as a large food crisper; that is, we put newly bought food, half eaten food or leftovers altogether. After a period of time, we probably found that the food has expired, thereby; we waste food and money virtually. Especially for expensive or delicious food, it will be a great pity. Some people are unaware of eating expired food or intentionally eat expired food for reducing the waste but all these behaviors may cause sick or diarrhea, these behaviors really harmful to the health. Not to mention the energy waste caused by the refrigerator for storing these expired food. In order to eat fresh food and save energy, it would be more desirable that the users can be immediately reminded of what foods almost expired or expired when opening the refrigerator. Therefore, we design the food preservation reminder. It can be fastened on the outer packing of a food by a peg, a magnet or a strap. As long as we simply set the remaining days of the food, it can warn us about the remaining days of the food. We wish this convenient and practical invention can let people do not worry about the expiration date of the food, thereby improving people's health and hygiene.


Invention characteristics and originalities

1. Instant reminding based on personal demands. The APP store has the software "food preservation reminder" whose functions are similar with our invention. The software has to be downloaded and installed on iPhone or tablets. If you forgot to check the APP on your device regularly, you may still forget that the food is almost to expire. Later we found other kind of physical remainder on the Internet. Although it also can remind the expiration date of a food, it can set only an approximate number of remaining days rather than an exact number of remaining days; in addition, the longest remaining days it can set is 30 days only. Therefore, the first outstanding creative feature of our invention is to support instant reminding when the user opens the refrigerator. The user also can set the preferred remaining days of the food and the reminder will flash on time so the user knows the approaching of the expiration date.

2. Easy to use. We just need to set the remaining days for the food, press the start button, put the reminder in a moisture-proof protective case and fasten the case on the outer packing of the food.

3. Fixable on any food outer packing:
We can use one of the following various ways to fasten the remainder on the outer packing of any food.
(1) Tied on crispers
(2) Stuck on iron bottle by magnets
(3) clipped on plastic bag
(4) Stuck on refrigerator door by the magnets for fixing notes
(5) Depending on user's creativity.


4. The design of the moisture-proof case:
(1) A silicone grommet is attached on the case opening to keep electronic parts from moisture.
(2) A case can avoid the operation button of the reminder to be pressed unexpectedly by other items in the refrigerator.

5. Using emerging technologies: Using emerging electronic technology makes our invention more close to people's demands.

6. Small size: only occupies a little space in the refrigerator.
(1) The size of the food preservation remainder: width 4.7 cm, length 3.8 cm, height 0.7 cm
(2) The size of the moisture-proof protective case: width 5.6 cm, length 4.8 cm, height 4 cm


Effectiveness and Instructions

1. Effectiveness
(1) Instant reminding based on user's preferred remaining days.
(2) Easy to use and fixable on the outer packing of any food

2. Instructions
(1) Set the preferred remaining days and put it into the moisture-proof protective case.


(2) Choose the proper manner to fasten the reminder on the various outer packing ( i ) tied by bends (ii) stuck by magnets(ii) clipped by pegs
(3) The instructions of setting remaining days of the reminder For example, if a food will expire after 120 days and we want to be reminded before 30 days, we have to set the remaining days of the reminder as 120-30 =90 days. (i) Take the food preservation reminder out, press days button until the LED shows the number 0f 90 and press the start/stop button. (ii)Put the food preservation reminder into the moisture-proof protective case. (iii)When we open the refrigerator and found the food preservation reminder flashes blue or green lights, this indicates that the food is about to reach the expiration date. We have to eat the food as soon as possible. To disable the food preservation reminder, we have to take it off the protective case and press its start/stop button.


Other considerations
1. We use one mercury battery to supply the required energy to the reminder. When the reminder ran out of energy, its battery has to be replaced.

2. To keep the reminder from moisture which may breaks the inside electronic components (e.g., circuit boards), we have to make a moisture-proof protective case.

3. To keep the protective case sealed completely, a silicone grommet is fastened on the case opening.

4. Because the light in the refrigerator usually is yellow, the LED flashing light must be blue or green that will be more visible.

5. To see the flashes easily, the protective case is made of transparent plastics.

6. To reduce the occupied size in the refrigerator, the reminder would be small size and light.

7. To increase the willing of buying our invention for housewives, the instructions should be very simple and the price should be very low.

8. Only those high price and long expiration date foods in the refrigerator are required to be reminded; otherwise, the refrigerator will be full of the reminders. This not only wastes time and money but also loses the purpose of our invention.