Detection of Food Contaminants using Nanotechnology - A Mini Review

Ingestion of microbial-contaminated food causes severe health issues due to the outburst of serious foodborne diseases. To prevent these situations, sensitive and precise detection of toxins and identification of pathogenic microbes are very important in today’s world. Different types of toxins include natural, chemical, and metal toxins. Based on their origin, natural toxins are classified into biotoxins which are produced by microorganisms (algal, bacteria, fungal), animal toxins, and phytotoxins. Researchers enabled the use of nanomaterials in biosensors, enhancing sensitivity, stability, and specificity. Nanomaterials like gold, silver, carbon nanotubes, graphene, magnetic nanoparticles, and quantum dots were commonly used to develop biosensors. Thus, this mini-review summarizes the old conventional and new analytical methods for detecting a few natural toxins present in different food samples.