Application of nanomaterials in food quality assessment

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7029-9_1

The food industry has a significant role to play in governing local economies all over the world. This sector includes some processes such as storage of raw materials, food production, and preservation. Food processing, food quality, and safety are vital to protect public health. Thus, food safety monitoring, for example, early detection of food pathogens, food-related toxins, allergens, chemicals, and enterotoxins, is of great significance. Nanoscience-based sensing platforms have become alternatives to conventional food safety monitoring techniques. Over the past few years, scientists have designed various novel nanosensors with high sensitivity and selectivity to detect a wide variety of hazardous substances. The nanomaterials, such as carbon-based nanoparticles, plasmonic/metallic nanoparticles, and inorganic fluorescent nanomaterials, have been extensively used to develop various detection platforms over the past few decades. The surface functionalization of nanoparticles using target-specific biological agents, such as aptamers and antibodies, has contributed to improving the efficiency of those nanoparticle-based diagnostic tools. In this chapter, general structural, physicochemical, and optical features of the nanoparticles were described, and their applications in food safety monitoring were reviewed. Following this, affinity agents and fundamental sensing principles employed in developing food-related hazardous substance detection tools were elaborated based on the recent publications in the literature. Finally, we expect to pave the way for enhancing the efficiency and applicability of nanosensors in the initial sensing of food-related targets that cause a significant risk for humankind worldwide.