An Associate Professor at UC Davis helped develop a scanner to find spoiled wine without opening the bottle.

“A Nondestructive Method of Determining Acetic Acid Spoilage in an Unopened Bottle of Wine,” A. J. Weekley, P. Bruins, and M. P. Augustine, J. Enol. Vitic., 53, 318-321 (2003).

A few years later, in 2006, the terror plot involving liquids inspired the researcher to think about another market — airline security.

Air passengers one day may be able to carry their soaps, shampoo and bottled water onto the plane again, thanks to technology originally developed at UC Davis to check the quality of wine.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate recently awarded a contract to a Denver-based defense firm to develop a magnetic resonance scanner that could be placed in airports and used to check bottles and cans for explosives without opening them.

Might as well put this in refrigerators and pantries too. No need for improbable expiration dates any more. Have the kitchen do a daily scan and send you an email to alert you when your stocks are contaminated or spoiled.