title: Electrochemical genosensors in food safety assessment.
abstract: The main goal of food safety assessment is to provide reliable information on the identity and composition of food and reduce the presence of harmful components. Nowadays, there are many countries where rather than the presence of pathogens, common public concerns are focused on the presence of hidden allergens, fraudulent practices, and genetic modifications in food. Accordingly, food regulations attempt to offer a high level of protection and to guarantee transparent information to the consumers. The availability of analytical methods is essential to comply these requirements. Protein-based strategies are usually employed for this purpose, but present some limitations. Because DNA is a more stable molecule, present in most tissues, and can be amplified, there has been an increasing interest in developing DNA-based approaches (polymerase chain reaction, microarrays, and genosensors). In this regard, electrochemical genosensors may play a major role in fulfilling the needs of food industry, such as reliable, portable, and affordable devices. This work reviews the achievements of this technology applied to allergen detection, species identification, and genetically modified organisms testing. We summarized the legislative framework, current design strategies in sensor development, their analytical characteristics, and future prospects.
authors.affiliation: a Sección Departamental de Química Analítica , Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Begoña
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Martín-Fernández
authors.affiliation: a Sección Departamental de Química Analítica , Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: C Lorena
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Manzanares-Palenzuela
authors.affiliation: a Sección Departamental de Química Analítica , Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Paniagua López
authors.affiliation: b Departamento de Química Física y Analítica , Universidad de Oviedo , Oviedo , Spain.
authors.forename: Noemí
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: de-Los-Santos-Álvarez
authors.affiliation: a Sección Departamental de Química Analítica , Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: López-Ruiz
mesh_terms: D000485:Allergens / Q000032:analysis*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D019649:Food Industry; D059022:Food Safety / Q000379:methods*; D030781:Organisms, Genetically Modified
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens
keywords: Allergen; electrochemical DNA sensor; food authenticity; food safety; genetically modified organisms; species identification