Detection of bacterial endotoxin in food: New planar interdigital sensors based approach

• Published in: Journal of food engineering 2013-02, Vol.114 (3), p.346-360
• Main Authors: Abdul Rahman, Mohd Syaifudin, Mukhopadhyay, Subhas Chandra, Yu, Pak-Lam, Goicoechea, Javier, Matias, Ignacio R., Gooneratne, Chinthaka P., Kosel, Jűrgen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bacteria; Bacterial endotoxin; Biological and medical sciences; Biomolecules; Coating; Endotoxins; Escherichia coli; Food engineering; Food industries; Food poisoning; Foods; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Impedance spectroscopy; Interdigital sensors; Methods of analysis, processing and quality control, regulation, standards; Poisoning; Principal component analysis; Salmonella; Selectivity; Sensors
• ISSN: 0260-8774; 1873-5770
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2012.08.026

► Novel planar interdigital sensors have been developed for endotoxin detection. ► Sensors were coated with different cross-linkers and immobilized with Polymyxin B. ► Analyses were based on impedance spectroscopy method and equivalent circuit model. ► Complex non-linear least squares and principal component analysis were also used. ► Silicon based interdigital sensors have better sensitivity and selectivity. Food poisoning caused by endotoxins or Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are associated with Gram-negative bacteria. Two major food-borne pathogens, Escherichia coli and Salmonella are examples of Gram-negative bacteria which cause a large number of outbreaks of food poisoning. New types of planar interdigital sensors have been fabricated with different coating materials to assess their response to endotoxins. A carboxyl-functional polymer, APTES (3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane) and Thionine were chosen to be coated onto FR4 interdigital sensors. The chosen coating materials have carboxylic or amine functional groups, which were optimized to be stable in water. All coated sensors were immobilized with PmB (Polymyxin B) which has specific binding properties to LPS. The sensors were tested with different concentrations of LPS O111:B4, ranging from 0.1 to 1000μg/ml. Analyses of sensors’ performance were based on the impedance spectroscopy method. The impedance spectra were modeled using a constant phase-element (CPE) equivalent circuit, and a principal component analysis (PCA) was used for data classification. Sensor coated with APTES has shown better selectivity for LPS detection. The experiments were repeated by coating APTES and immobilizing PmB to a new improve designed of novel interdigital sensors (thin film silicon based sensors). These sensors were observed to have better sensitivity and selectivity to the target biomolecules of LPS. Further experiments were conducted to study the effect of different coating thickness on sensor sensitivity, selectivity and stability. Different food samples contaminated with endotoxin were also tested to verify that the interdigital sensing approach is able to be used for endotoxin detection.