Electrochemical biosensors for analysis of safety and quality parameters in fish and processed fishery products

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Screen-Printed Electrode-Based Sensors for Food Spoilage Control: Bacteria and Biogenic Amines Detection

Publication . Torre, Ricarda; Costa-Rama, Estefanía; Nouws, Henri P. A.; Delerue-Matos, Cristina

Food spoilage is caused by the development of microorganisms, biogenic amines, and other harmful substances, which, when consumed, can lead to different health problems. Foodborne diseases can be avoided by assessing the safety and freshness of food along the production and supply chains. The routine methods for food analysis usually involve long analysis times and complex instrumentation and are performed in centralized laboratories. In this context, sensors based on screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) have gained increasing importance because of their advantageous characteristics, such as ease of use and portability, which allow fast analysis in point-of-need scenarios. This review provides a comprehensive overview of SPE-based sensors for the evaluation of food safety and freshness, focusing on the determination of bacteria and biogenic amines. After discussing the characteristics of SPEs as transducers, the main bacteria, and biogenic amines responsible for important and common foodborne diseases are described. Then, SPE-based sensors for the analysis of these bacteria and biogenic amines in food samples are discussed, comparing several parameters, such as limit of detection, analysis time, and sample type.

2020Journal article

Open access

Food allergen control: Tropomyosin analysis through electrochemical immunosensing

Publication . Torre, Ricarda; Freitas, Maria; Costa‐Rama, Estefanía; Nouws, Henri; Delerue-Matos, Cristina

Regulations of the EU obliges the indication of the presence of allergens on food labels. This work reports the development of an electrochemical immunosensor to determine tropomyosin (TPM) – a major shellfish allergen – prevailing in the muscles of crustacean species. Two linear ranges between the signal and TPM concentration were obtained: between 2.5 and 20 ng mL−1 and between 30 and 200 ng mL−1, with a lowest limit of detection of 0.47 ng mL−1. The selectivity of the optimized immunoassay, tested with other food allergens (e.g., Cyp c 1, a fish allergen), assures the effective detection of TPM, enabling successful control of foodstuff labelling. Several (12) foods, containing high and low TPM concentrations and TPM-free samples, were analysed using the sensor. A conventional ELISA kit and recovery assays were used to evaluate the accuracy of the results.

2022Journal article

Open access