CHAPTER 20: Food Biosensors: Perspective, Reliability, Selectivity, Response Time, Quality Control, and Cost-Effectiveness

Abstract

High-quality and safe food is very important for human health. As a consequence, accurate and sensitive detection of food contaminants has become essential. Conventionally, methods such as liquid and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and spectrophotometry are commonly used. But these methods require expensive instruments, complex pretreatment steps, specialized personnel, and large quantity of organic solvents. Such methods cannot be used to perform in situ assays. Biosensors are miniaturized analytical instruments with many merits such as simple preparation, good sensitivity, high selectivity, and portable construction. Stability, reproducibility and selectivity are key parameters that should be considered when developing and producing a biosensor. This chapter gives a general overview of the possible applications of biosensors in food analysis. Methods for the immobilization of electrodes are investigated and analytical performance criteria such as detection limit, reproducibility, stability, and response time are summarized in tables and compared in the main text. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017.