Histamine
(HA) is an indicator of food freshness and quality. However,
high concentrations of HA can cause food poisoning. Simple, rapid,
sensitive, and specific quantification can enable efficient screening
of HA in food and beverages. However, conventional assays are complicated
and time-consuming, as they require multiple incubation, washing,
and separation steps. Here, we demonstrate that time-gated Förster
resonance energy transfer (TG-FRET) between terbium (Tb) complexes
and organic dyes can be implemented in both immunosensors and aptasensors
for simple HA quantification using a rapid, single-step, mix-and-measure
assay format. Both biosensors could quantify HA at concentrations
relevant in food poisoning with limits of detection of 0.19 μg/mL
and 0.03 μg/mL, respectively. Excellent specificity was documented
against the structurally similar food components tryptamine and l-histidine. Direct applicability of the TG-FRET assays was
demonstrated by quantifying HA in spiked fish and wine samples with
both excellent concentration recovery and agreement with conventional
multistep enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Our results
show that the simplicity and rapidity of TG-FRET assays do not compromise
sensitivity, specificity, and reliability, and both immunosensors
and aptasensors have a strong potential for their implementation in
advanced food safety screening.