Metal–Organic Frameworks (MOFs) Based Analytical Techniques for Food Safety Evaluation

Abstract

As the supply chain of food around the world has become more and more globalized and complicated, food safety issue has attracted considerable concern owing to the widespread pollution of the whole ecosystem and the extent of their impact on the well-being of human beings. Correspondingly, a variety of analysis approaches to detecting and even adsorbing contaminants in food have been extensively explored and investigated. Among them, Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as potential versatile sensing materials have been utilized in the construction of multitude of sensing platforms with excellent performance to monitor different pollutants of food, including pesticide residues, heavy metals, mycotoxins and so on. Herein, we briefly introduce the progress of the MOFs-based sensing techniques, and then present the typical contributions of representative sensing platforms in detection of pesticides, heavy metals and other contaminants. Finally, we evaluate and discuss the future perspectives and challenges of MOFs in food contaminant analysis.

MOF-Based Mycotoxin Nanosensors for Food Quality and Safety Assessment through Electrochemical and Optical Methods

“…Typically, MOFs are produced using sol-gel and various other methods, such as (a) electrochemical technique (continuous and fast microcrystalline MOF production) [ 44 ]; (b) hydro/solvothermal technique ([high-quality MOF crystals, many days of reaction temperature, pressure > 100 °C]; some common solvents in this method are alcohols, acetonitrile, acetone, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), N,N-dimethylformamide (DEF) and H 2 O) [ 45 ]; (c) slow solvent evaporation technique (traditional method generated under ambient conditions, but with a very long reaction time) [ 46 ]; (d) microwave-assisted heating technique (brief nucleation time and uniform pore shapes and sizes) [ 47 ]; (e) mechatronics technique (ecological, economic, short reaction time, no formation of polluting or toxic compounds, and solvent-free) [ 48 ]; and (f) sonochemical reaction technique (homogeneous nucleation by cavitation revealed by ultrasound) [ 49 ]. All these procedures are equally sensitive to changes in the type of solvent, reagent concentration, molar ratio of the starting materials, reaction pH, counter ions, pressure, temperature, and timeframe [ 50 ].…”

Magnetic MOF Substrates for the Rapid and Sensitive Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Detection of Uranyl

“…Owing to their tunable pore structure, large specific surface area, and high active site density, 20 MOFs have been used with sensing techniques for the detection of pesticide residues, heavy metals [such as Hg(II), Fe(III), Cd(II), Pb(II), and Co(II)], fungal toxins, and other contaminants in food, as well as for the adsorption of uranyl. 21 A novel MOF material, ZIF-8, showed an excellent performance in the adsorption of uranyl owing to its numerous surface atoms that could enhance surface reactions. 22 Wang et al 22 prepared ZIF-8-based polyacrylonitrile fibrous filters whose surfaces formed complexes with uranium for effective nuclear wastewater treatment.…”

“…The excellent adsorption capacity exhibited by metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) for uranyl is expected to overcome this limitation in the development of Au-based SERS substrates. Owing to their tunable pore structure, large specific surface area, and high active site density, MOFs have been used with sensing techniques for the detection of pesticide residues, heavy metals [such as Hg­(II), Fe­(III), Cd­(II), Pb­(II), and Co­(II)], fungal toxins, and other contaminants in food, as well as for the adsorption of uranyl . A novel MOF material, ZIF-8, showed an excellent performance in the adsorption of uranyl owing to its numerous surface atoms that could enhance surface reactions .…”

A simple and sensitive electrochemical sensor based on amine-functionalized metal-organic framework and polypyrrole composite for detection of lead ion in meat

“…Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) materials have higher speci c surface area, ultra-strong adsorption capacity, adjustable porosity, and rich functional groups, all which are required for high-quality electrode-modi ed materials (Ding et al 2020;Xiao et al 2014). However, due to its low electrical conductivity, utilizing a single MOFs material as the electrode modi cation material is not optimal (Rouhani et al 2019;Xue et al 2021). The optimal technique is to hybridize MOFs with large speci c surface areas with outstanding conductive materials such as metal nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes, carbon quantum dots, conductive polymers, and graphene (Bhardwaj et al 2018).…”