Researchers at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the nation's largest missile-maker, have turned their expertise to designing and producing a handheld gadget meant for homemakers and other food market shoppers.

The small "freshness sniffer", as the developers at CASIC's Beijing Institute of Radio Metrology and Measurements call it, is an electronic device that determines the freshness of meat you are about to buy or cook. It's based on sensor and measurement technologies long employed in missiles and space equipment.