Chapter 14: Detection of Toxins in Food by Biosensors

Foods are the only source of energy and nutrients for humans. Toxin-producing microorganisms can exist in foods, and partially or entirely destroy the nutritional quality of foods. Food toxins are universally a major health topic, causing foodborne diseases that severely impact humans. So, utilizing scientific technologies to determine toxins in food is important to prevent food safety problems and protect human health. Sensor systems present high selectivity, sensitivity, and ability to analyze complicated samples, making them ideal analytical methods for the qualification and quantification of food toxins. Recent nanotechnological improvements have greatly increased sensitivity, making possible the monitoring of food toxins at ultralow levels. In this chapter, various electrochemical sensor systems described in the literature for the determination of several food toxins are summarized, highlighting their advantages, restrictions, and applications in terms of sensitivity, simplicity, detection limit, and linearity range.