Development of an electrochemical sensor modified with gold nanoparticles for detecting fumonisin B1 in packaged foods

Abstract

Fumonisin B1 (FB1) is naturally present in the environment and can easily contaminate packaged foods during processing, storage and transportation, thus posing a threat to human health. We have developed an enzyme-free FB1 detector for the detection of packaged foods, which provides rapid and sensitive detection of FB1 in food. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs; 5–10 nm) were uniformly dispersed on screen-printed electrodes, which acted as an excellent catalytic oxidizer. The surface structure of the modified electrode was characterized using scanning electron microscope and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Differential pulse voltammetry demonstrated a good linear electrochemical response towards FB1 at concentrations ranging from 1 ng L⁻¹ to 1 mg L⁻¹ with a detection limit of 0.08 ng L⁻¹. We employed the AuNPs-SPE sensor to detect FB1-spiked packaged meat products achieving recovery rates ranging from 89.7% to 113.3%.