SERS-microfluidic systems: A potential platform for rapid analysis of food contaminants

Background: Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) techniques are becoming increasingly widespread and accessible for accurate and specific identification of chemical or microbiological contaminants in foodstuffs. However, the consistency and repeatability of SERS-based techniques is a challenge due to complicated detection environments. This drawback can be overcome by integrating the SERS detection into a microfluidic platform, which can provide a continuous flow condition for highly reproducible SERS measurements. Furthermore, the SERS-microfluidic platform can perform elaborating sample pre-treatments, showing great potentials for on-situ analysis of food contaminants. Scope and approach: This review mainly summarizes the principles and methods of SERS-microfluidic systems, as well as their applications in rapid analysis of food contaminants. Three ways of integrating SERS substrate into microfluidic channels are highlighted. Finally, the main challenges and future efforts in developing SERS-microfluidic systems for on-situ food contaminants detection are discussed. Key findings and conclusions: SERS-microfluidic platform conforms to the development tendency of modern analytical technology, and has great potentials for rapid analysis of food contaminants.