Hot or Not?

Duncan concurs. “Most of the new applications are novelty effects in packaging: areas of heat-sensitive, color-changing ink on ice cream cartons, beer labels, cups/mugs, lottery tickets, and CD/DVD packaging,” he says. “On the food containers, there is a minor functional purpose in letting the user know if the food is roughly in the optimal temperature range. On the other products, it’s strictly a ‘What’ll they think of next?’ purpose.”