Every year, one third of global food production -1.3 billion tons of food- is thrown away, partially due to the “best before” dating system. iGEM Groningen 2012 seeks to provide an alternative method of assessing edibility: <font color=#FF6700><b>The Food Warden</b></font>. It uses an engineered strain of Bacillus subtilis to detect and report <font color=#FF6700><b>volatiles in spoiling meat</b></font>. The introduced <font color=#FF6700><b>genetic construct</b></font> uses a promoter to trigger a<font color=#FF6700><b>pigment</b></font>coding gene. This promoter, identified by microarray analysis, is significantly up-regulated in the presence of volatiles from spoiled meat. The activity of the promoter regulates the expression of the pigment reporter and will be visible to the naked eye. For safe usage of the system, spores of our engineered strain are placed into one half of a semi-permeable <font color=#FF6700><b>capsule</b></font>, the second containing a calibrated amount of nutrients. Breaking the barrier between the two compartments allows <font color=#FF6700><b>germination and growth</b></font>, thereby activating the spoiling meat sensor.<br><br>