Recent advances in nanomaterial biosensors for the detection of antibiotics to ensure food safety

Authors:Bo Long, Qian Zhang, Lintong Zhang, Qiongqiong Xing, Qi Liu, Liying Deng, Fangfang Qu, Rui You, Xuan Wei, Dapeng Ye, Zhanhui Yuan

Abstract:Ensuring food safety has become a paramount global challenge, impacting both public health and societal stability. Antibiotics are a class of bacteriostatic agents used to treat animal diseases. However, antibiotics accumulate in food and pose a hazard to human health through the food chain. Traditional antibiotic testing requires well-equipped laboratories and professionals, so it is necessary to develop convenient testing methods. Biosensors have the advantages of excellent detection performance, simple operation, and easy design, which provide great potential for on-site detection. In this paper, nanoparticles are categorized into metal nanoparticles, carbon nanoparticles, polymer nanoparticles and compound nanoparticles based on their composition. We summarize the suitability of nanoparticles for different biosensors and the reasons for this based on their properties. The development of portable intelligent detection devices in the field of on-site detection is summarized and outlooked. Finally, the main challenges and future opportunities for biosensors are discussed, providing a clear future direction for the detection of antibiotics in food samples.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.166634