Recent advance in SERS techniques for food safety and quality analysis: a brief review

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has shown a wide array of applications in food safety and quality to detect and analyze chemical and microbiological hazards. SERS technique offers advantages over traditional analytical techniques as a rapid, sensitive 'fingerprinting' and field-deployable analytical tool. However, SERS technique still faces challenges when applied for analysis of complex food matrices. Recent advance in SERS techniques for food safety and quality application has been focusing on developing enhanced SERS substrates and methodologies 1) to enhance the sensitivity and selectivity and reduce matrix interferences, 2) to enable non-destructive sampling and in situ detection. Chemical modifications have been conducted on SERS substrates to immobilize molecular capturing agents (e.g. functional ligands, molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs), aptamers) and to enhance analytical sensitivity. Enrichment methodologies (filtration, microfluidic, MIPs, thin-layer chromatography) have been incorporated with SERS to separate and concentrate target analytes from matrices. SERS active in situ sampling substrates (e.g. SERS tape, SERS fiber, SERS needle) were developed to enable non-destructive sampling and in situ analysis. In this brief review, we will summarize some recent development and application of SERS techniques for food safety and quality analysis and our perspective for future development.