An intelligent food wrapping known as ‘intelligent plastics’ alerts people when there is a risk of food damaging beyond its ‘best before’ date or has been poorly refrigerated.

It also alerts people if sealed packaging has been broken or damaged, putting the contents at risk.

The British scientists believes that it will reduce unnecessary household wastes and help in cutting around 8.3million tons of food being disposed off in the UK every year.

In Scotland, half of the food has been binned which could be still edible, including 31,000 tones of milk and 25,000 tones of bread each year.

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde have made an indicator labels which are inserted into food packaging.

It works with food that has been sealed in a modified atmosphere where the level of oxygen are reduced and replaced with inert gases such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide to slow natural decay.

The new plastic is so designed that it can detect colour change when oxygen rises above a predetermined level.

It also responds to a chemical changes caused by food spoiling.