Radiation and food safety are big issues these days, but most of us feel utterly helpless when it comes to determining the safety of our food. The Fukushima Plate from Nils Ferber would let everyone take a more active role in food safety by measuring the amount of radiation found in everything we eat – with just about no effort.

The Fukushima Plate is a regular dinner plate with a radioactive meter built in to tell you just how much radiation has seeped into the meal you are preparing to eat. You decide how much radiation is acceptable by setting the limiting value on the plate’s control panel. Since different people have different ideas of what is safe, this gives you control over your own health.

Rings on the plate’s surface light up when radiation is detected in the food. A plate with no rings lit means that the radiation level is safely below the recommended threshold. One ring means that the radiation level is slightly increased.

Two white rings indicate a higher level still, and two white rings with an encircling red ring mean that the food on the plate contains more radiation than your chosen threshold amount. For people who don’t believe the news reports that there is no reason to worry about food safety, the Fukushima Plate could provide some much-needed peace of mind at mealtime.