AI-powered color detection in packaging offers real-time tracking and waste reduction

AI-detected color changes in food packaging can help detect product freshness based on subtle changes to real-time temperature, humidity, or other environmental factors, finds a new study.

According to the study, the findings could help reduce waste by creating a cost-effective packaging solution for the F&B industry, healthcare, logistics, and electronics.

Packaging Insights speaks to study author Jari Isohanni about how AI-enabled color detection can help move food packaging from “static” solutions to interactive indicators of product freshness and safety.

“The study on recognizing subtle color differences demonstrates that small shifts in color intensity — triggered by time, temperature, or humidity — can be reliably detected,” says Isohanni.

“In practice, a printed smart tag could change color based on real storage conditions, providing consumers with a more accurate, real-time indicator of product safety — beyond static printed dates.”

Ink with impact

Isohanni highlights that such AI color detection requires collaboration with chemical engineers to install functional inks in packaging solutions. 

Functional inks are specially designed inks with active properties that can enable electronic, chemical, or biological functions. 

Isohanni highlights functional inks in QR codes can help detect product freshness.“Functional inks can show whether a product has been exposed to too much heat, humidity, or light. The benefits of this include: verifying the correct consuming temperature for the best consumer experience, confirming that an item is heated enough for food safety, and monitoring the item so that it’s not harmful for consumers,” explains Isohanni. 

He says that color change in conventional printing ink is too subtle and rapid to be detected by current machine vision methods. Instead, Isohanni argues that AI-enabled color recognition can achieve greater accuracy without expensive electronic sensors. 

If implemented successfully, functional inks could influence consumer behavior by “making purchasing and consumption decisions more data-driven and less guesswork-based.”

Algorithms meet packaging

The product data attained by functional ink change detection is analyzed through machine learning, which Isohanni argues is “crucial for interpreting subtle, real-world changes in smart tags.”

He explains that algorithms can calibrate for lighting conditions, camera differences, and user preferences. Moreover, machine learning could personalize packaging by “adjusting which data gets highlighted — for example, warning a consumer sensitive to allergens if storage compromises freshness.”

Isohanni notes that functional inks offer a cost-effective solution that can be detected accurately through AI, and suggests that food packaging companies can embed functional ink sensors inside QR codes, Datamatrix labels, or directly onto packages. 

“This makes designs functional (real-time sensing, lifecycle tracking) and aesthetic as QR codes remain compact and brandable. Combined with hybrid printing, producers can tailor labels to product type, balance cost, and create packaging that is not only smart but also visually appealing.”