Rapid electrochemical screening methods for food safety and quality

Abstract

This paper presents some examples of rapid, simple and cost effective screening methods that can be realized by the use of Screen Printed Electrodes (SPEs) coupled with portable and cheap instrumentation, for the monitoring of food safety and quality. When necessary, these SPEs have been modified with nanomaterials in order to improve their performance and then their analytic characteristics. Arsenic detection, for example, has been obtained with SPEs modified with of a composite of nanostructured Carbon Black and Au nanoparticles, while for the pesticide detection the SPEs were modified with Prussian Blue nanoparticles in addition to the enzyme Butyrylcholinesterase. In the case of immunosensors, a high sensitivity has been obtained making the entire immunological chain to happen on the surface of magnetic beads (MBs), finally collected on the surface of screen printed arrays with the aid of magnets located just under the working electrodes. Application to real samples demonstrates the effectiveness of such approaches.