Sensors and Food Quality

Abstract

Production processes require quality control. The quality of food going to the consumer must always be assured. Traditionally this was performed by taking a sample and sending it to a remote laboratory. While this is successful for most samples, this was not always the case. Having remote laboratories means that there could be a significant lag-time between sampling and results. Some unstable samples may have changed or the source material could have been already used/processed by the time they are analyzed. Sensor-based systems, especially those incorporated within flow injection analyzers, can overcome this problem. As the systems can be small and inexpensive relative to other automated analyzers, they can easily be fitted onsite. With the sensors fitted within the production process, a nearly instant reading can be achieved. The advantages and disadvantages of physical, chemical, and biosensors and their applicability to food analysis are discussed. Particular attention is focused on the improvements made to the underlying technology used in biosensor construction.

Biosensors for environmental pollutants and food contaminants

“…Many review articles have been published in recent years discussing the use of biosensors for food analysis [1,2,3,4], food safety [5,6,7,8,9], the detection of specific analytes in environmental settings [10,11,12,13,14], and regarding commercial biosensors [15,16,17]. Also, general review articles about biosensors with specific emphasis on food and environmental control have been published [18,19,20,21].…”

Dual Laccase–Tyrosinase Based Sonogel–Carbon Biosensor for Monitoring Polyphenols in Beers

“…In food quality, biosensors have already confirmed their potential usefulness as tools for the detection of several types of compounds of interest: carbohydrates, alcohols, phenols, carboxylic acids, amino acids, biogenic amines, heterocyclic, inorganic, and additive or contaminants compounds , . Numerous papers have been published on the determination of phenolic compounds in food samples with biosensors.…”

Direct electron transfer: an approach for electrochemical biosensors with higher selectivity and sensitivity

“…2 They are also able to perform very selective reactions. [6][7] The essential underlying process for these reactions is electron transfer. Enzyme or protein mediated electron transfer is a fundamental phenomenon, not only in cellular processes, but also in reactions of biotechnological interest, as summarized in Figure 1.…”