Recent developments and applications of surface plasmon resonance biosensors for the detection of mycotoxins in foodstuffs

Over the past 10 years, great efforts on the development of methods for rapid mycotoxin detection in foodstuffs have been made. As one of the relatively new analytical techniques, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has been proven particularly advantageous for rapid, label-free, sensitive analyte detection. Using SPR, qualitative and quantitative analysis can be performed in real-time. Mycotoxins are a group of small, toxic products formed as secondary metabolites by a few fungal species. They can contaminate foodstuffs on a large scale and consequently threaten human health through food chain. Thus, rapid, sensitive, and selective determination of mycotoxin is of great significance for the food safety. This contribution addresses the basic principle of SPR, the existing detection methods, and the progress on mycotoxin detection using SPR biosensor. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.