Onsite Detection of Food Contaminants
Jui Lodh, D. C. Sen, Priti Saha and Tanmay Hazra
Introduction
The control of risk associated with food contaminants and adulterants is a great challenge in relation to food safety in every country regardless of the economic and social development. The frequent occurrence of several food scandals in the world has led the government to implement several strategies to establish high food safety standards. International scientific organizations, such as Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO) have already given stress on food safety as global concern for providing clean, nontoxic and safe food. According to Codex AlimentariusCommission, "contaminant" is each substance not intentionally added to the food, but found inside as a result of the production process, farming practices, treatment, packaging, transportation, storage of food or result of environmental contamination but foreign substances such as insect fragments, animal hair, etc. are not excluded in this definition (Umapathi et al. 2022). Pesticides, phenolic compounds, veterinary drugs, pathogens, herbicides, illegal food additives, mycotoxins, heavy metals etc. are the examples of food contaminants which extensively affecting the quality of food products. The presence of contaminants in food result severe health hazards and eventually create a huge financial and medical burden globally (Scott et al. 2022). It requires strict monitoring and surveillance system that not only focuses on the food end products but the whole food supply chain starting from the agricultural production, food processing, storage, import, export and consumption of food in order to provide a food chain transparency and risk management for the government including general public. For ensuring public safety, general awareness and proper education of producers, industries and consumers are also needed. These depend heavily on laboratory based detection methods such as liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, thin-layer chromatography, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, high-performance liquid chromatography, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, enzyme linked immunosorbent assays, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, atomic absorption spectroscopy,fluorescence microscopy, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry etc. (Umapathi et al. 2022).These conventional detection methods are limited withsophisticated sample preparation procedures, long analysis time, large instruments with complex operational procedures with expertise personnel to meet the increasing demands which make them unsuitable for real-time, point-of-care (POC), in situ and onsite detection (Shen et al., 2022; Gao et al., 2021). Moreover, these methods are associated with high operating cost. Phosphorescence, colorimetric, fluorescence, chemiluminescence, surface plasmon resonance, electrochemical, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, microfluidic strategies, etc. are also good enough than the conventional detection methods and efficiently used for the detection of food contaminants. But their large instrument size restrict their use in field based applications. All these restrictions were act as the driving force for the design and development of portable analytical devices for the onsite detection of food contaminants (Lee et al. 2021).Various sensing strategies like colorimetric, fluorescence and electrochemical assays are widely used and exhibited great promise in relation to food safety (Umapathi et al. 2022).
Though continuous improvement is still going on to attain more accurate information about the contaminants in foods, both rapidly and at POC. For real time detection, novel and affordable materials are needed for easy fabrication, for getting rapid and efficient results without compromising sensitivity or accuracy. Recent scientific researches are being conducted for the sensitive and selective detection of food contaminants based on electrochemical sensing strategies for identifying and quantifying specific target contaminants due to their exceptional selectivity, sensitivity, reliability, fast response, low maintenance costs, and wide linear range (Marimuthu et al. 2022). Main electrochemical sensing strategies in this regard include cyclic voltammetry, impedance, linear sweep voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV), anodic stripping voltammetry, and square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (Singh et al. 2022). The overall electrochemical behavior and the limit of detection can be improved by modification of electrodes with specific nanomaterials. Reduction of sample volume and fabrication of portable devices can be achieved by combining electrochemical sensing assays with screen printed electrodes (SPEs) based on thick film technologies. SPEs have revolutionized electro analysis and able to bridge the gap between lab-to-hand implementation (Marimuthu et al. 2022). These potable electrochemical devices are gaining popularity due to digital imaging features and can be integrated with smartphones which make them most promising and powerful device to meet the global market demand. Fabrication of portable devices has a significant business potential in domestic and international market and expected to grow rapidly in the coming years for ensuring food safety and safe guarding human health (Shen et al. 2022).
Advantages of Onsite Detection Devices:
- Onsite detection
- Real time data
- Ease of handling
- Shorter testing time
- Require less sample size
- Consume fewer chemicals
- Simple procedure
- Easy operation
- Environment friendly
- Sample treatment is not required
- Practical to utilize in environmental, agricultural, healthcare and biotechnological monitoring
- Cost effective
Table 1. Different Portable Electrochemical Devices for Onsite Detection of Food Contaminants
|
Type of Onsite Detector |
Suitable Applications |
References |
|
Portable electrochemical tools (single or in dual mode) |
Detection of paraoxon |
Jin et al. 2019 |
|
Glove-embedded sensors |
Detection of carbendazim, diuron, paraquat, fenitrothion in cabbage and apples by touching with the glove and with the immersion of the fingers in the orange juice |
Raymundo-Pereira et al 2021 |
|
Wearable, stretchable, disposable, and flexible electrochemical glove biosensors |
Detection of organophosphorus nerve agents on fruits and vegetables |
Mishra et al. 2017 |
|
Glove-based electrochemical sensor using silver nanoconductive ink |
Onsite screening of trifluralin pesticide residues |
Farshchi et al. 2021 |
|
Ultrasensitive user friendly device |
Detection of chlorpyrifos pesticide residues in tomato juice |
Nagabooshanam et al. 2020 |
|
Glove-based electrochemical sensor |
Detection of mesotrione in oranges and grapes in a picomolarlevel |
Rajaji et al. 2021 |
|
Wearable and flexible glove-based sensor |
For onsite sensing of trifluralin present in fruits. It also highly efficient in real time detection of pesticides present in apple and leaf samples |
Mahmoudpour et al. 2021 |
|
Micro-electrochemical analytical tool |
Detection of chlorpyrifos in foods |
Nagabooshanam et al. 2019 |
|
Wearable smart plant biosensor may be communicated with a smartphone |
Detection of methyl parathion present on the irregular surfaces of fruits and leaves |
Zhao et al. 2020 |
|
Portable novel electrochemical biosensor |
Detection of pesticide assay in the range between 3 to 4000 ng ml−1 |
Liu et al.2022 |
|
Portable electrochemical sensors |
Onsite detection of illicit drugs namely heroin, cocaine, 4-chloro-alpha-pyrrolidinovalerophenone, ketamine, 3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine etc. |
Parrilla et al. 2021 |
|
Nano coral polyaniline-modified graphene and paper-based portabledevice integrated with a mobile phone |
Detection of xylazine from a large surface area |
Roy et al. 2022
|
|
Portable electrochemical devices |
Presence of pathogens in water |
Da silva et al. 2022 |
|
Portable and simple electrochemical biosensor |
Vibrio parahaemolyticus pathogen in real samples |
Nordin et al. 2017 |
|
Portable electrochemical devices |
Onsite detection of mycotoxins in feeds and foods |
Soares et al. 2018 |
|
Amperometricaptasensor |
Detection of ochratoxin A mycotoxin in the spiked grape juice and serum samples |
Abnous et al. 2017 |
|
Lab-on-a-chip biosensor |
Real time sensing of aflatoxins |
Uludag et al. 2016 |
|
Portable and disposable electrochemical aptasensor |
Label free sensing of aflatoxin B1 in alcoholic beverages |
Goud et al. 2016 |
Conclusion
Portability is the main consideration for the designing and development of advanced analytical devices. Several scientific efforts have been made to fabricate portable and user-friendly sensing devices. Moreover, electrocatalytic procedures were also designed for the onsite sensing of food contaminants. Among them, SPEs are simple, highly selective, sensitive, low cost and rapid approaches for onsite detection. Even though, many challenges are still needed for the designing and development of multifunctional, miniaturized, wearable, intelligent, stable, sensitive, integrated, selective, implantable, adaptable and inexpensive electrochemical devices for detection of food contaminants. Scientific automations and computations are in need to upgrade with fabricated portable tools. Lab-on-a-chip, lab-on-a-glove, lab-on-a-disc, lab-on-a-leaf models, etc. should be developed with continuous advancements for quick detection to solve the challenges effectively.
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