Recent Progress in Electrochemical Nano-Biosensors for Detection of Pesticides and Mycotoxins in Foods

Abstract

Pesticide and mycotoxin residues in food are concerning as they are harmful to human health. Traditional methods, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for such detection lack sensitivity and operation convenience. Efficient, accurate detection approaches are needed. With the recent development of nanotechnology, electrochemical biosensors based on nanomaterials have shown solid ability to detect trace pesticides and mycotoxins quickly and accurately. In this review, English articles about electrochemical biosensors in the past 11 years (2011–2022) were collected from PubMed database, and various nanomaterials are discussed, including noble metal nanomaterials, magnetic metal nanoparticles, metal–organic frameworks, carbon nanotubes, as well as graphene and its derivatives. Three main roles of such nanomaterials in the detection process are summarized, including biomolecule immobilization, signal generation, and signal amplification. The detection targets involve two types of pesticides (organophosphorus and carbamate) and six types of mycotoxins (aflatoxin, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, fumonisin, ochratoxin A, and patulin). Although significant achievements have been made in the evolution of electrochemical nano-biosensors, many challenges remain to be overcome.

Biosensors for Food Mycotoxin Determination: A Comparative and Critical Review

“…They have a high specific area and electro-conductivity and are prone to easy modification, enabling the increase in the number and variety of immobilized biorecognition elements, leading to the simultaneous detection of multiple analytes. Nanomaterials can preserve the activity of biomolecules and enhance their physiological stability [195]. Gong et al [195] discussed comparatively the performances of different types of nanomaterials.…”

“…Nanomaterials can preserve the activity of biomolecules and enhance their physiological stability [195]. Gong et al [195] discussed comparatively the performances of different types of nanomaterials. Gold nanoparticles have proved to be excellent transducers for developing electrochemical biosensors.…”

Multivariate Optimization of Electrochemical Biosensors for the Determination of Compounds Related to Food Safety—A Review

“…Several reviews on the development of biosensors for ensuring food safety control exist in the literature. These reviews discuss Biosensors 2023, 13, 694 2 of 17 various approaches, including fast detection and affinity-based methods [3,4], detection of allergens and adulterants [5,6], aptasensors [7,8], nanomaterials employed in the construction of biosensors [9][10][11], metal-organic frameworks as biosensing platforms [12], and nanoenzyme-based biosensors [13], among many other very interesting reviews [14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

“…A third group of analytes considered for ensuring food safety are pesticides, emerging contaminants (synthetic or naturally occurring chemicals or any microorganisms that are not commonly monitored in the environment but have the potential to enter the environment and cause known or suspected adverse ecological and/or human health effects), and other compounds (chemicals which do not fit into the other categories mentioned, but are presented in the literature as indicators of food quality) such as L-glutamate, 6-benzyladenine, and carbaryl, among others [35][36][37]), with a concentration range that varied between 12 and 13%. These groups of compounds, particularly pesticides, have gained a lot of importance in recent years, and many studies have been developed regarding these analytes [16,38,39]. The last group of analytes, which includes antibiotics, viruses, heavy metals, mono-and di-saccharides, and hormones, represents a smaller portion (between 1 and 3%) of the electrochemical biosensors developed to food safety, accounting for a total of 10% of the published papers on this topic.…”

“…Various types of working electrodes have been used to develop electrochemical biosensors, including glassy carbon, gold, platinum, and screen-printed electrodes, among others [13][14][15][16][17][18]. The choice of working electrode material typically involves different electrode preparations.…”