An evaluation of the capability of a biolayer interferometry biosensor to detect low-molecular-weight food contaminants.

The safety of our food is an essential requirement of society. One well-recognised threat is that of chemical contamination of our food, where low-molecular-weight compounds such as biotoxins, drug residues and pesticides are present. Low-cost, rapid screening procedures are sought to discriminate the suspect samples from the population, thus selecting only these to be forwarded for confirmatory analysis.

Development of a rapid low cost fluorescent biosensor for the detection of food contaminants.

A prototype fluorescent based biosensor has been developed for the antibody based detection of food related contaminants. Its performance was characterised and showed a typical antibody binding signal of 200-2000 mV, a short term noise of 9.1 mV, and baseline slope of -0.

Monoclonal antibody development for acrylamide-adducted human haemoglobin; a biomarker of dietary acrylamide exposure.

The spontaneous formation of the neurotoxic carcinogen acrylamide in a wide range of cooked foods has recently been discovered, leading to dietary exposure estimates of 30.8 microg of acrylamide day(-1) for an average 77 kg human male. This is considerably higher than the European legal limit of acrylamide in drinking water, which is approximately 0.

Development of a novel immunobiosensor method for the rapid detection of okadaic acid contamination in shellfish extracts.

The mouse bioassay is the methodology that is most widely used to detect okadaic acid (OA) in shellfish samples. This is one of the best-known toxins, and it belongs to the family of marine biotoxins referred to as the diarrhetic shellfish poisons (DSP). Due to animal welfare concerns, alternative methods of toxin detection are being sought.