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CHAPTER 7. Immunosensors for Food Allergens: An Overview

Nowadays, foodborne allergies and illnesses have become a global menace on public health. Product mislabeling, accidental cross-contamination or intentional adulteration with low quality or unsafe ingredients for economic purposes could constitute a serious drawback: thus, safety and quality are of paramount importance in the food industry. Analytical strategies for on-site sensitive detection and screening of food allergens and food contaminants are becoming fundamental, since a huge development is being made in functional foods and new food manufacturing technologies. From the perspective of a quick and accurate analysis, immunosensors represent ideal tools that are able to provide a specific and fast response, since they are portable devices of low-cost and are easy to use. Among the different types of immunosensors, electrochemical immunosensors are widely accepted because of their large applicability such as screening, monitoring or diagnosing. This chapter summarizes a general overview of allergens, the applied nanotechnology and the fundamentals of immunosensors built to be applied in food analysis. The approaches used to develop electrochemical immunosensors for detecting foodborne allergens are emphasized.