Recent advancements of optical, electrochemical, and photoelectrochemical transducer-based microfluidic devices for pesticide and mycotoxins in food and water

Food safety, an initial aim of food analysis, has become a thriving concern globally for human health. As a miniaturized system, microfluidic devices integrates multiple analytical procedures onto a single chip and reduces the handling of various steps of laboratory process to facilitate portable and in-situ application, which have received growing attraction to monitor food safety in recent years. This review summarizes the recent progress of microfluidic devices based on the optical (e.g., colorimetric, spectrometric, fluorometric, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering), electrochemical, and photoelectrochemical approaches toward monitoring food safety via detecting pesticides and mycotoxins in agricultural products and water. A basic introduction to this subject is summarized. Next, architecture, construction, fluid mixing dynamics, and integration of different sensing systems (transducer) have been highlighted briefly. Then, the effect of the introduction of nanomaterials, recognition elements, and chemometrics methods to microfluidic devices has been shortly presented. Subsequently, the application of the microfluidic device with the mentioned techniques to determine pesticides and mycotoxin in food and water has been systematically discussed. Additionally, challenges in detecting small molecules using microfluidic devices have been deliberated. Finally, conclusions and future perspectives are stated. Microfluidic devices have received grave attention for their potential usefulness in sensing pesticides and mycotoxins with high accuracy and precision coupled with the mentioned techniques. Additionally, a significant reduction of sample and reagent volume made this technique an ideal choice for in-situ application.