A novel hybrid dual-channel catalytic-biological sensor system for assessment of fruit quality

Fruit Quality Monitoring with Smart Packaging

Smart packaging of fresh produce is an emerging technology toward reduction of waste and preservation of consumer health and safety. Smart packaging systems also help to prolong the shelf life of perishable foods during transport and mass storage, which are difficult to regulate otherwise. The use of these ever-progressing technologies in the packaging of fruits has the potential to result in many positive consequences, including improved fruit quality, reduced waste, and associated improved public health. In this review, we examine the role of smart packaging in fruit packaging, current-state-of-the-art, challenges, and prospects. First, we discuss the motivation behind fruit quality monitoring and maintenance, followed by the background on the development process of fruits, factors used in determining fruit quality, and the classification of smart packaging technologies. Then, we discuss conventional freshness sensors for packaged fruits including direct and indirect freshness indicators. After that, we provide examples of possible smart packaging systems and sensors that can be used in monitoring fruits quality, followed by several strategies to mitigate premature fruit decay, and active packaging technologies. Finally, we discuss the prospects of smart packaging application for fruit quality monitoring along with the associated challenges and prospects.

A critical review on intelligent and active packaging in the food industry: Research and development

The emergence of many new food products on the market with need of consumers to constantly monitor their quality until consuming, in addition to the necessity for reducing food corruption during preservation time, have led to the development of some modern packaging technologies such as intelligent packaging (IP) and active packaging (AP). The benefits of IP are detecting defects, quality monitoring and tracking the packaged food products to control the storage conditions from the production stage to the consumption stage by using various sensors and indicators such as time-temperature indicators (TTIs), gas indicators, humidity sensors, optical, calorimetric and electrochemical biosensors. While, AP helps to increase the shelf-life of products by using absorbing and diffusion systems for various materials like carbon dioxide, oxygen, and ethanol. However, there are some important issues over these emerging technologies including cost, marketability, consumer acceptance, safety and organoleptic quality of the food and emphatically environmental safety concerns. Therefore, future researches should be conducted to solve these problems and to prompt applications of IP and AP in the food industry. This paper reviews the latest innovations in these advanced packaging technologies and their applications in food industry. The IP systems namely indicators, barcoding techniques, radio frequency identification systems, sensors and biosensor are reviewed and then the latest innovations in AP methods including scavengers, diffusion systems and antimicrobial packaging are reviewed in detail.

A Review on the Use of Impedimetric Sensors for the Inspection of Food Quality

This paper exhibits a thorough review of the use of impedimetric sensors for the analysis of food quality. It helps to understand the contribution of some of the major types of impedimetric sensors that are used for this application. The deployment of impedimetric sensing prototypes has been advantageous due to their wide linear range of responses, detection of the target analyte at low concentrations, good stability, high accuracy and high reproducibility in the results. The choice of these sensors was classified on the basis of structure and the conductive material used to develop them. The first category included the use of nanomaterials such as graphene and metallic nanowires used to form the sensing devices. Different forms of graphene nanoparticles, such as nano-hybrids, nanosheets, and nano-powders, have been largely used to sense biomolecules in the micro-molar range. The use of conductive materials such as gold, copper, tungsten and tin to develop nanowire-based prototypes for the inspection of food quality has also been shown. The second category was based on conventional electromechanical circuits such as electronic noses and other smart systems. Within this sector, the standardized systems, such as electronic noses, and LC circuit -based systems have been explained. Finally, some of the challenges posed by the existing sensors have been listed out, along with an estimate of the increase in the number of sensors employed to assess food quality.

Chemical and Biological Sensors for Food-Quality Monitoring and Smart Packaging

The growing interest in food quality and safety requires the development of sensitive and reliable methods of analysis as well as technology for freshness preservation and food quality. This review describes the status of chemical and biological sensors for food monitoring and smart packaging. Sensing designs and their analytical features for measuring freshness markers, allergens, pathogens, adulterants and toxicants are discussed with example of applications. Their potential implementation in smart packaging could facilitate food-status monitoring, reduce food waste, extend shelf-life, and improve overall food quality. However, most sensors are still in the development stage and need significant work before implementation in real-world applications. Issues like sensitivity, selectivity, robustness, and safety of the sensing materials due to potential contact or migration in food need to be established. The current development status of these technologies, along with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities for future research, are discussed.

Bacillus subtilis biosensor engineered to assess meat spoilage

Here, we developed a cell-based biosensor that can assess meat freshness using the Gram-positive model bacterium Bacillus subtilis as a chassis. Using transcriptome analysis, we identified promoters that are specifically activated by volatiles released from spoiled meat. The most strongly activated promoter was PsboA, which drives expression of the genes required for the bacteriocin subtilosin. Next, we created a novel BioBrick compatible integration plasmid for B. subtilis and cloned PsboA as a BioBrick in front of the gene encoding the chromoprotein amilGFP inside this vector. We show that the newly identified promoter could efficiently drive fluorescent protein production in B. subtilis in response to spoiled meat and thus can be used as a biosensor to detect meat spoilage.

Biosensor for on-line fluorescent detection of trifluoroperazine based on genetically modified calmodulin

This paper describes the development of a novel on-line biosensor based on a fluorescently labeled human calmodulin (CaM), hCaM M124C-mBBr, immobilized on controlled-pore glass (CPG), for the analysis of trifluoroperazine (TFP); a phenothiazine drug in human urine samples. The device was automated by packing hCaM M124C-mBBr-CPG in a continuous-flow microcell connected to a monitoring system, composed of a bifurcated optical fiber coupled to a spectrofluorometer. Operating parameters of the on-line biosensor (flow rate, sample injection volume, and carrier solution and buffer pH) were studied and optimized. Under the optimal conditions, the biosensor provides a detection and a quantification limit of 0.24 and 0.52 μg mL(-1), respectively, and a dynamic range from 0.52 to 61.05 μg mL(-1) TFP (n = 5, correlation coefficient 0.998). The response time (t(100)) was shorter than 42 s (recovery time <4.5 min) and reproducibility and repeatability of the TFP measurements, within the linear response range, were lower than 1.4 and 2.7%, respectively. The device was successfully applied to the analysis of TFP in spiked human urine samples with recoveries ranging between 97 and 101% and with RSDs lower than 5.9%.

A personalized life: biomarker monitoring from cradle to grave

Considering the holy grail of future medical treatment being personalized medicines, biomarker research will become more and more the focus for attention not only to develop new medical treatment regimes, based on changes in biomarker patterns, but also for nutritional advice to guarantee a lifelong optimized health condition. The current review gives an outline of how personalized medicine can become established for actual medical treatment using new biomarker concepts. Starting from the development of biomarker research using mainly immunological techniques, the review gives an overview about biomarkers of prediction evolved and focuses on new methodology for the identification of biomarkers using hyphenated analytical techniques like metabolomics and lipidomics. The actual use of multivariate statistical methods in combination with metabolomics and lipidomics is discussed not only for medical treatment but also for precautionary risk identification in human biomonitoring studies.