Smart corks: enemies of fraud and poorly stored products

Are you afraid of fraud? Well, rightly so, with everything you hear in the world of wine (and beyond!).

To help consumers, who are often left entirely on their own, NFC (Near Field Communication) technology arrives – also used for smartphone payments.

The technology is being applied to the wine world thanks to smart corks conceived and developed by NXP, a leading group in the design and production of semiconductors, and Guala Closures Group, a giant in the "closure" sector that produces caps for wine and spirits. I

mpossible to tamper with thanks to tamper evident systems, they aim – by communicating with smartphones and tablets – to provide details about the products in question, also offering recipes, deals, and other information.

Producers, in turn, will be able to interact with consumers both at the point of purchase and during use.

This technology complements that of smart corks which measure bacterial changes in beverages and, through an app on a smartphone or tablet, alert users when a product – whether due to expiration or poor storage – is going bad, avoiding unpleasant surprises for our taste buds. This other useful tool was designed by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, who created the smart cork using a 3D resonance system.

Corks, from a simple "closure" to a consumer's ally and an important communication tool for producers.