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

Abstract

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.

Paper-Based Screen-Printed Electrodes: A New Generation of Low-Cost Electroanalytical Platforms

“…Most of them have been applied to the clinical field and a challenge is to expand their utilization to other areas. Actually, paper-based electroanalytical devices would be very useful to the agri-food sector, to evaluate the presence of certain molecules and/or the freshness of a beverage/foodstuff [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. In this way, these devices could reduce the gap between complex laboratory analysis and simple point-of-need testing, lowering costs, simplifying procedures, and reducing waste generation.…”

“…In this knowledgeable society, it is obvious the interest in developing low-cost, miniaturized and easy-to-use analytical devices that provide on-site quantitative information in a fast and easy way. The high potential of these devices makes them useful in very assorted fields: from clinical and biomedical applications [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ] to food analysis and quality control [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], as well as environmental monitoring [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”

“…Moreover, (bio)assays could be performed in parallel. Although the most common commercial screen-printed electrode (SPE) card contains the three electrodes (WE, RE and CE) of the electrochemical cell, different configurations are possible due to the high versatility in design, one of the most important advantages of SPEs [ 2 , 6 ]. Currently, platforms with more than one electrochemical cell and cells with more than one WE can be found in the market [ 13 , 14 , 23 ].…”

Advancement in Salmonella Detection Methods: From Conventional to Electrochemical-Based Sensing Detection

“…Screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) are one of the miniaturised electrode technologies widely utilised in the development of commercial sensors nowadays. They have been used for the detection of heavy metals [ 227 ], toxins [ 228 ], antibiotics [ 229 ] as well as microorganisms [ 230 ]. Aside from portability, SPEs are also excellent in avoiding some of the common problems faced by the traditional solid electrode such as memory effects and tedious cleaning process [ 231 ].…”

Food Quality Monitoring Based on Hydrolysis-Induced Au-Catalyzed Heck Cross-Coupling by Ag Metallization

“…Biogenic amines are low molecular weight organic compounds that are often produced by the decarboxylation of free amino acids [17]. This decarboxylation removes the αcarboxyl group from the amino acid and produces biogenic amines such as histamine from histidine, tyramine from tyrosine, and tryptophan from tryptophan [16,18].…”