Pathogenic Escherichia coli biosensor detection on chicken food samples

Abstract

Abstract Escherichia coli is an important pollution indicator and is the most important foodborne pathogens of public health concern. The chicken meat is one of the most important sources of good quality protein, and it is also susceptible to microbial contamination and often implicated in foodborne disease. In such context, the detection of E. coli K12 in frozen chicken meat was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and surface plasmon resonance imaging techniques. The anti‐E. coli antibody was first immobilized onto gold surface by physisorption technique. The electrical and optical properties of the immobilized anti‐E. coli K12 antibody were studied. The binding of the E. coli K12 bacteria with the anti‐E. coli antibody layer was measured with a detection limit of 103 cfu/ml. This detection limit is better than those obtained with the enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. Moreover, the developed biosensor was used for E. coli K12 detection in inoculated frozen chicken meat.Practical applications Escherichia coli is an important pollution indicator and is the most important foodborne pathogens of public health concern. The present study deals with the development of bacteria biosensors based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and surface plasmon resonance imaging techniques for E. coli K12 detection in inoculated frozen chicken meat. A detection limit of 103 cfu/ml was obtained with the developed biosensors that was better than those obtained with classical methods such as ELISA (enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay). This research work opens tremendous potential applications for the detection of pathogens in food at the early stage particularly with the development of miniaturized multiarrays platform based on impedance spectroscopy.