High throughput pathogen screening for food safety using magnetoelastic biosensors

In order to secure food safety, high throughput pathogen screening technique that can quickly identify and isolate unsafe contaminated foods has been long-desired. Recently, magnetoelastic (ME) free-standing biosensors have been investigated as a label-free wireless biosensor system for real-time pathogen detection. ME biosensor is composed of a ME resonator coated with a bio-molecular recognition element that binds specifically with a target pathogen. Once the biosensor comes into contact with the target pathogen, binding occurs, resulting in a decrease of the sensor's resonant frequency. Interrogated through magnetic signals, large amount of ME sensors can be deployed and monitored wirelessly. ME biosensors have been investigated to detect foodborne pathogens in cultures and liquid foods. Recently, it has been demonstrated that phage-based ME biosensors are able to directly detect Salmonella Typhimurium on food surfaces without the requirement of pre-analysis culture preparation. This paper will review the novel ME biosensor technique, including the detection principle, the characterization of the sensor performance, the deployment of multiple sensor detection and their applications, especially for food safety analysis. The ME biosensor technique has the potential to be a powerful pathogen screening tool for detecting contaminated food, identifying critical hazard points, and tracking contamination sources along the entire food supply chain.