Development of a biosensor to monitor food spoilage in real time

Food freshness is an essential consideration for food quality control and consumer acceptance, especially for fish and related products which are highly perishable due to their special biological and physicochemical characteristics. Conventional methods to detect fish spoilage are generally not suitable for on-site application due to the complexity of procedures and high testing requirements. Thus, innovative biosensors with good portability for on-line measurements or in-situ testing are of great interest to satisfy the current requirement for rapid food quality control. The objective of this project is to develop a new inexpensive, portable, quick biosensor with good sensitivity to detect one of the fish degradation products to monitor food spoilage in real-time. A highly selective chromogen will be used as a visible indicator immobilized on the paper-based biosensor to indicate the freshness of fish product. The developed biosensor will be applied to several fishery products to certify its performance. This research will provide a new possibility of one-step simple detection in food spoilage control field.

Faculty Supervisor:

Benjamin Simpson

Student:

Partner:

Complutense University of Madrid

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

McGill University

Program: