Multisensor biomimetic systems with fully artificial recognition strategies in food analysis

Food materials and their products are directly connected with the life of all living beings and thus present themselves as most important candidates for quality analysis. A wide variety of method-development strategies are being applied for this purpose, but direct online systems are highly desirable, with demand ever increasing. This article reviews recent literature on the topic stressing mainly two points: the first is the development of artificial multisensor systems and the second is the design of robust materials for these devices. Although most of the progress in the area has focused on metal oxide semiconductors, novel approaches using electrochemical and mass-sensitive systems are also emerging rapidly. As far as sensing materials are concerned, tailor-made interaction layers, where interaction sites are, e. g., created in polymeric substances, are replacing biomaterials. Among these, molecular imprinting is the most prominent. In this technique selectivity is achieved by making direct imprints of templates in a polymer matrix, thus generating a material homologous with its biological counterparts.