Nano-Immunosensors for the Rapid and Sensitive Detection of Foodborne Toxins: Recent Advances

Abstract

Foodborne toxins pose significant risks to public health, necessitating rapid and accurate detection methods to ensure food safety. Traditional detection methods, such as chromatography and mass spectrometry, are often time-consuming, expensive, and require extensive sample preparation. Nano-immunosensors (NISs), which are biosensors that incorporate nanoscale materials (e.g., nanoparticles) to detect specific analytes (e.g., bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli, mycotoxins like aflatoxins and ochratoxin A, marine toxins such as ciguatoxins and saxitoxins, and chemical contaminants including pesticides and heavy metals), offer a promising alternative, leveraging the unique properties of nanomaterials to achieve high sensitivity and speci-ficity in detecting a wide range of toxins. These sensors enable real-time monitoring with minimal sample preparation, making them highly suitable for complex food matrices. Additionally, NISs can be integrated into portable devices, facilitating on-site testing and immediate decision-making, which is critical in food safety management. Their ability to detect multiple toxins simultaneously further enhances their utility in diverse food safety applications. This review explores the development of NISs, focusing on their applications in detecting bacterial, fungal, and marine toxins, as well as chemical contaminants. Key advantages, such as rapid detection, cost-effectiveness, and enhanced sensitivity compared to conventional methods, are highlighted. The potential for future advancements in NIS technology to further improve food safety and public health outcomes is also discussed, emphasizing their role in meeting the increasing demand for safer food products.