Smartphone-based Sensing in Food Safety and Quality Analysis

Abstract

Smartphone-based sensors have been widely used for the control of food safety and quality due to their cost-effectiveness, simplicity and practicality. Smartphones with a functional camera unit, powerful processor and custom-developed applications have been integrated into portable sensors to detect and quantify specific food pathogens, chemicals or toxins, which are suitable for use in remote settings, especially in developing countries. This chapter focuses on the recent progress of smartphone-based sensors, including paper-based sensors, chip-based sensors, smartphone microscopy and other types of sensors in food safety and quality assessment. We first discuss the historical development of smartphone, microfluidic devices and their integration. We emphasize the benefit of the use of smartphone-based sensors for the detection of food analytes, such as food pathogens, chemicals and toxins, as compared to the conventional benchtop detection technologies. We summarize smartphone-based sensing approaches based upon colorimetric, fluorescence, luminescence and electrochemical detection and highlight their progress towards commercialization. The existing challenges and future perspectives for the application of smartphone-based sensors in food safety assessment are also briefly discussed.