Design Principles of Nanosensors for Multiplex Detection of Contaminants in Food

The rapid and cost-effective detection of food contaminants such as toxins and pathogens is a major challenge and a key concern for food safety. To this end, innovative, fast, cost-effective, and easy-to-use sensors must be developed at the point where food is produced, distributed, and consumed. Therefore, timely detection and response to food contaminants can improve human health and reduce economic burden. However, affordable sensor technologies with specificity, sensitivity, and speed are required, which can be used by non-specialized personnel and enable high throughput analysis. In this respect, advances in the development of nanoparticle-based sensors, i.e., nanosensors, have shown the potential to provide the much-anticipated versatile sensors. In addition, multiplex detection, i.e., the ability to detect multiple targets simultaneously, is another strategy facilitated by nanoparticle-based sensors and will enable further improvements in sensor performance that are important for developing effective monitoring. This review summarizes the nanosensors for multiplex sensing of food samples with respect to hazardous contaminates reported over the past few years. In addition, special attention is paid to providing the reader with promising design principles and the current performance of the sensitivity and selectivity of such sensors for practical requirements, thereby inspiring new ideas for developing further advanced systems.