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

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.

Tyrosinase based amperometric biosensor for determination of tyramine in fermented food and beverages with gold nanoparticle doped poly(8-anilino-1-naphthalene sulphonic acid) modified electrode

The aim of the present work was to develop an amperometric biosensor for tyramine (Tyr) measurement in food and beverages. The biosensor architecture is based on tyrosinase (Tyr_ase) immobilization on glassy carbon electrode modified by a nanocomposite consisting of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) synthesized by a green method and poly(8-anilino-1-naphthalene sulphonic acid) modified glassy carbon electrode. Under optimized experimental conditions for fixed potential amperometric detection, the biosensor exhibited a linear response to tyramine in the range 10-120 µM and the limit of detection was estimated to be 0.71 µM. The novel platform showed good selectivity, long-term stability, and reproducibility. The strong interaction between tyrosinase and the nanocomposite was revealed by the high value of the Michaelis-Menten constant (79.3 μM). The fabricated biosensor was successfully applied to the determination of Tyr in dairy products and fermented drinks with good recoveries, which makes it a promising biosensor for quantification of tyramine.

Development of an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for the Detection of Tyramine as an Index of Freshness in Meat and Seafood

A competitive indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ciELISA) using a polyclonal antibody was developed to detect tyramine in meat and seafood. This ciELISA had a 50% inhibition concentration (IC₅₀) of 0.20 mg/L and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.02 mg/L and showed no cross-reactivity with tyrosine or other biogenic amines. The average recoveries of tyramine from spiked samples for this ciELISA ranged from 85.6 to 102.6%, and the results exhibited good correlation with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) results. The LOD of this assay for tyramine in meat and seafood samples was 1.20 mg/kg. The ciELISA was successfully applied to detect tyramine in positive fish samples, and the results were validated by HPLC to be reliable. The developed ciELISA allows for the rapid, specific, and accurate detection of tyramine in meat and seafood samples, and it could be a potentially useful tool for the evaluation of the freshness of protein-rich foods.