A press release about a near-infrared spectroscopy would not win the "drop everything and read this right now" category of any inbox competition.
But as it happened I was waiting for Word to load so I had a look at it now I want one.
This new technology is in its infancy and Osram Opto Semiconductors is the only company to offer it at the moment the release says.
Its possibilities are exciting, to say the least, particularly for the weight watching and portion-control communities.
This spectroscopy (shall we call it spec) has the potential to measure calorie content and nutrients of food by scanning it as well as the water, fat, carbohydrate, sugar or protein content.
In future, farmers could also use it to scan their potatoes to decide when to harvest them it is suggested. Although my mind turns more to seeing it built into a smart watch so that you can work out what you are eating in a restaurant or at home.
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​Here's the science as they say on the ads (there's a lot of it): "Near-infrared spectroscopy based on LED technology uses the characteristic light absorption behavior of certain molecular compounds. If a defined light spectrum is directed at a sample it is possible to determine the presence and quantity of certain ingredients from the wavelength distribution of the reflected light. Every molecule absorbs light at several, specific wavelengths. This absorption spectrum is unique and acts like a fingerprint for a particular molecule. Different functional groups absorb characteristic frequencies of infrared radiation. Using various sampling accessories, infrared spectrometers can accept a wide range of sample types such as gases, liquids, and solids. NIREDs act as a compact light source for the spectrometer."
See: https://www.osram.com/os/applications/mobile-competence/mobile-competence-spectroscopy.jsp
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I was delighted to root out Frank Smith's signature at the National Archives while researching the history of Smith's Crisps for a PepsiCo campaign as well as a portrait of the man himself from a museum archive.  For someone who grew up on Salt'n'Shake, with the little blue bags of salt inside the packet, this put everything into context.

As Jonathan Saffran Foer argues in the book Eating Animals, from an environmental point of view we should be eating all the millions of dogs which have had to be put down by vets. Judging by the public reaction to the horsemeat scandal, that's not going to happen- well unless it already is and we don't know about it.