Milk gone sour? There's an app for that

We all know the feeling of opening up the fridge and grabbing the milk, only to discover that the white liquid has a horrible sour smell indicating it's gone bad. Wouldn't it be great to be alerted about that while at the office so you can stop at the store on the way home?

Now there's an app for that, along with what the developers of a new technology are calling the "milk jug of the future": the Milkmaid.

Developed as part of a contest challenging the public to come up with new ways of using technology and software to solve everyday problems, the Milkmaid was created by General Electric and a social development company called Quirky. The jug is designed to give instant information about how much milk is left and whether it is still good.

According to Quirky, the jug sits in an electronic base that constantly measures the quantity and pH level of the milk. When the system determines that the milk is either low, or that its pH indicates that it has gone bad, it sends an automatic text message saying so.

At the same time, users can access an iPhone app that provides the same information.

This may be a bit of overkill, but for those who are busy and forget to check their milk's status themselves, this could well be helpful. Plus, it's easy to imagine the same technology being applied to other perishables.