Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FOODSELFI (FOOD Safety monitoring by Electrochemical Lateral Flow Immunoassay)

Teaser

Food safety and quality is a worldwide concern, it is one of the most regulated areas in the world, mainly in the developed markets and obviously, affects every country that imports and/or exports food. The international food safety community is demanding new technological...

Summary

Food safety and quality is a worldwide concern, it is one of the most regulated areas in the world, mainly in the developed markets and obviously, affects every country that imports and/or exports food. The international food safety community is demanding new technological advances in rapid, quantitative and on-site monitoring for the most relevant analytes (pathogens, allergens, etc) set by international standards on food safety. They should be developed at affordable costs for the food industry, with the additional health and economic benefits for the society.

BIOLAN, a European SME leader in the field of biosensors for the food industry, aims to disrupt the market with the commercialization of rapid, low cost, disposable and quantitative one-step inmunobiosensors based on the Electrochemical Lateral Flow Immunoassay (ELFI) analytical technology.

In FOODSELFI, BIOLAN combined traditional qualitative lateral flow technology with quantitative electrochemical detection. This was conducted through the mass producible ELFI concept formulation: screen printed electrodes in the same paper material substrate of the lateral flow immunoassay.

Work performed

During FOODSELFI, the main specifications for the development of an electrochemical lateral flow immunoassay (ELFI) have been defined. They include materials, processes and manufacturing conditions needed to produce a working ELFI prototype. In addition, the design of the scale-up manufacturing process has also been defined, including electrode screen printing, antibody and reagent deposition.
The FOODSELFI prototype combined screen printed electrodes and hydrophobic barriers on paper based substrates in order to produce a platform capable of in-situ immunological reactions and electrochemical detection. The prototype was developed using a typical antibody model (interleukin-6) and was capable of determining 0 - 20 µg mL-1 per antibody molecule (n = 3).

Final results

STATE OF THE ART -vs- FOODSELFI Progress
1) Plastic/semi-paper analytical platforms - Paper analytical platforms
2) Qualitative or semiquantitative paper-based lateral flow immunoassay - Fully paper-based quantitative immunoassays
3) Caffeine-quantification in beverages is time consuming (hours) and requires expensive laboratory equipment/skilled personnel. Official method is based on chromatographic methods with spectrophotometric detection - In situ detection, user-friendly solution

Website & more info

More info: https://www.youtube.com/watch.