Recent advances in ratiometric electrochemical sensors for food analysis

Ratiometric electrochemical sensors are renowned for their dual-signal processing capabilities, enabling automatic correction of background noise and interferences through built-in calibration, thus providing more accurate and reproducible measurements. This characteristic makes them highly promising for food analysis. This review comprehensively summarizes and discusses the latest advancements in ratiometric electrochemical sensors and their applications in food analysis, emphasizing their design strategies, detection capabilities, and practical uses. Initially, we explore the construction and design strategies of these sensors. We then review the detection of various food-related analytes, including nutrients, additives, metal ions, pharmaceutical and pesticide residues, biotoxins, and pathogens. The review also briefly explores the challenges faced by ratiometric electrochemical sensors in food testing and potential future directions for development. It aims to provide researchers with a clear introduction and serve as a reference for the design and application of new, efficient ratiometric electrochemical sensors in food analysis.

Recent Advances in Electrochemical Biosensors for Food Control

The rapid and sensitive detection of food contaminants is becoming increasingly important for timely prevention and treatment of foodborne disease. In this review, we discuss recent developments of electrochemical biosensors as facile, rapid, sensitive, and user-friendly analytical devices and their applications in food safety analysis, owing to the analytical characteristics of electrochemical detection and to advances in the design and production of bioreceptors (antibodies, DNA, aptamers, peptides, molecular imprinted polymers, enzymes, bacteriophages, etc.). They can offer a low limit of detection required for food contaminants such as allergens, pesticides, antibiotic traces, toxins, bacteria, etc. We provide an overview of a broad range of electrochemical biosensing designs and consider future opportunities for this technology in food control.

Recent advances of ratiometric sensors in food matrices: mycotoxins detection

The public health problem caused by mycotoxins contamination has received a great deal of attention worldwide. Mycotoxins produced by filamentous fungi widely distributed in foodstuffs can cause adverse impacts on humans and livestock, posing serious health threats. Particularly worth mentioning is that mycotoxins can accumulate in organisms and be enriched through the food chain. Improving early trace detection and control from the source is a more desirable approach than the contaminated food disposal process to ensure food safety. Conventional sensors are susceptible to interference from various components in intricate food matrices when detecting trace mycotoxins. The application of ratiometric sensors avoids signal fluctuations, and reduce background influences, which casts new light on developing sensors with superior performance. This work is the first to provide an overview of the recent progress of ratiometric sensors in the detection of mycotoxins in intricate food matrices, and highlight the output types of ratiometric signal with respect to accurate quantitative analysis. The prospects of this field are also included in this paper and are intended to have key ramifications on the development of sensing detection conducive to food safety.

An accurate and ultrasensitive ratiometric electrochemical aptasensor for determination of Ochratoxin A based on catalytic hairpin assembly

Ochratoxin A (OTA) pollution in agricultural products has raised the pressing to develop sensitive, accurate and convenient detection methods. Herein, an accurate and ultrasensitive ratiometric electrochemical aptasensor was proposed based on catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) for OTA detection. In this strategy, the target recognition and CHA reaction were both accomplished in the same system, which avoided tedious multi-steps operation and extra reagents, providing the advantage of convenience with only a one-step reaction and without enzyme. The labeled Fc and MB were used as the signal-switching molecules, avoiding various interferences and greatly improving the reproducibility (RSD: 3.197%). This aptasensor achieved trace-level detection for OTA with LOD of 81 fg/mL in the linear range of lower concentration (100 fg/mL-50 ng/mL). Moreover, this strategy was successfully applied to OTA detection in cereals with comparable results of HPLC-MS. This aptasensor provided a viable platform for accurate, ultrasensitive, and one-step detection of OTA in food.