A PRESTIGIOUS prize for innovative design awarded by Dyson has been won by Solveiga Pakštaitė.

This tri-lingual inventor has created a bio-reactive food label which changes texture to show when food is going out of date and was awarded the UK’s James Dyson award as a result.

Solveiga, a 22-year old Lithuanian, was born in Norway and recently graduated from Brunel University with a degree in Industrial design and technology.

She explained: “I noticed that there was no way for visually impaired people to get access to expiry information. I just became obsessed with the idea of the texture changing to let them know.”

Her invention, Bump Mark, contains a bumpy bottom layer surrounded by gelatine which slowly decays to reveal the texture underneath.

This gelatine layer will go off at the same rate as protein based food that it is packaged with, making it more accurate than conventional food labelling at determining when groceries are past best.

This system will also allow people to assess whether their food is safe to eat more easily than sell by dates, which may help reduce food waste.

She added: “A lot of people have been criticising it because it contains gelatine, which is not vegetarian.”

Although gelatine has so far granted her the most success Solveiga said that she hopes to find a similar plant based alternative to her current design.

To do this she will need a partner with a laboratory willing to invest time and materials into perfecting her unique new labelling system with rigorous testing.

Solveiga now has a patent pending on her design and will be focusing on it before moving on to her next project.

She added: “I had nothing to lose by developing this product, and I would encourage other design students to really use their time in education to stretch their imaginations.”

A student from her university, Brunel University London, also won the same award last year for a wave powered generator.