Microfluidic Food Safety

The frequent occurrence of chemical (pesticide residues, heavy metals, and illegal additives) and biological (foodborne pathogens like Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter jejuni, Sonne dysentery bacillus, E. coli, and Salmonella typhimurium) contaminations has made food safety a topic of international concern. As a result, food safety testing and analysis are crucial tools for preventing food contamination and resolving food safety issues. Historically, instrumental analysis has served as the foundation for most detection technologies. Even if it is accurate and trustworthy, instrumental analysis has some drawbacks, such as pricey equipment, a lengthy cycle, high material consumption, difficult operation, and low sensitivity. To meet the demands of on-site, real-time, quick, and portable food detection, it is imperative to design a novel analysis approach. Microfluidic Analysis in Food Safety The integration of sample pretreatment, separation, and detection into a chip with a few square centimeters has made microfluidic chip technology a hot topic in recent years. This allows sample pretreatment and follow-up analysis to be miniaturized, automated, integrated, and portable. It has been widely employed in the detection of pesticide residue, pathogenic bacteria, heavy metals, and food additives due to its benefits of low sample consumption, quick detection, simple operation, multi-functional integration, small size, and portability. For instance, a paper-based microfluidic device was created to detect leftover aminoglycoside antibiotics, Ag+, and Hg2+ simultaneously in food.

8888