QCM Sensor Arrays, Electroanalytical Techniques and NIR Spectroscopy Coupled to Multivariate Analysis for Quality Assessment of Food Products, Raw Materials, Ingredients and Foodborne Pathogen Detection: Challenges and Breakthroughs.

Quality checks, assessments, and the assurance of food products, raw materials, and food ingredients is critically important to ensure the safeguard of foods of high quality for safety and public health. Nevertheless, quality checks, assessments, and the assurance of food products along distribution and supply chains is impacted by various challenges. For instance, the development of portable, sensitive, low-cost, and robust instrumentation that is capable of real-time, accurate, and sensitive analysis, quality checks, assessments, and the assurance of food products in the field and/or in the production line in a food manufacturing industry is a major technological and analytical challenge. Other significant challenges include analytical method development, method validation strategies, and the non-availability of reference materials and/or standards for emerging food contaminants. The simplicity, portability, non-invasive, non-destructive properties, and low-cost of NIR spectrometers, make them appealing and desirable instruments of choice for rapid quality checks, assessments and assurances of food products, raw materials, and ingredients. This review article surveys literature and examines current challenges and breakthroughs in quality checks and the assessment of a variety of food products, raw materials, and ingredients. Specifically, recent technological innovations and notable advances in quartz crystal microbalances (QCM), electroanalytical techniques, and near infrared (NIR) spectroscopic instrument development in the quality assessment of selected food products, and the analysis of food raw materials and ingredients for foodborne pathogen detection between January 2019 and July 2020 are highlighted. In addition, chemometric approaches and multivariate analyses of spectral data for NIR instrumental calibration and sample analyses for quality assessments and assurances of selected food products and electrochemical methods for foodborne pathogen detection are discussed. Moreover, this review provides insight into the future trajectory of innovative technological developments in QCM, electroanalytical techniques, NIR spectroscopy, and multivariate analyses relating to general applications for the quality assessment of food products.

Investigation of the binding and simultaneous quantifications of propanil and bromoxynil herbicide concentrations in human serum albumin.

This study reported the use of UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy and partial-least-square (PLS) multivariate regression for accurate and simultaneous quantifications of two widely used herbicides, propanil, 3',4'-dichloropropionanilide (PPL) and bromoxynil, 3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxybenzonitrile (BXL) in human serum albumin (HSA) at physiological conditions. The binding affinity and thermodynamic properties of PPL-HSA and BXL-HSA complexes were also investigated. Partial-least-square (PLS) regression was used to collate the variability in the absorption or emission spectra of PPL-HSA and BXL-HSA complexes with PPL and/or BXL concentrations in HSA samples. The binding constants of 7.66× 108 M-1 for PPL-HSA and 4.88× 106 M-1 for BXL-HSA complexes were calculated at physiological conditions (temperature, 310 K; pH 7.4). Thermodynamic parameter values: enthalpy (ΔH) (13.99 kJ mol-1), entropy (ΔS) (0.078 kJ mol-1 K-1), and Gibbs free energy (ΔG) (-10.19 kJ mol-1) were determined for PPL-HSA complexation at physiological conditions. However, differences in thermodynamic property values of: ΔH (-214.3 kJ mol-1), ΔS (-0.563 kJ mol-1 K-1), and ΔG (-39.70 kJ mol-1) were observed for BXL-HSA complexes. The binding constants and negative ΔG values indicated strong binding affinity and thermodynamically favorability of PPL-HSA and BXL-HSA complex formation. Results of the PLS regression calibration showed good linearity (R2 ≥ 0.998289), high sensitivity, and impressive low limit-of-detections (LODs) of 1.38× 10-8 M for PPL and 1.68× 10-8 M for BXL that are comparable and/or lower than many previously reported LODs for herbicide and pesticide analyses. Most importantly, PLS regression is capable of simultaneous quantifications of PPL and BXL concentrations in HSA samples with good accuracy and low errors of 3.66%. UV-visible spectrophotometers and spectrofluorometers are fairly inexpensive, easy to use, and are readily available in almost every laboratory, making this protocol excellent and affordable for routine analysis of weed/pest control chemical residues in humans. The results of this study are significant and remarkable that will provide critical insight into the binding mechanism of herbicide toxicity in humans and non-target organisms, which are of special interest in the area of biomedical study, environmental risk assessment, and ecotoxicology.

Analyses of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and chiral-PAH analogues-methyl-ß-cyclodextrin guest-host inclusion complexes by fluorescence spectrophotometry and multivariate regression analysis.

The negative health impact of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and differences in pharmacological activity of enantiomers of chiral molecules in humans highlights the need for analysis of PAHs and their chiral analogue molecules in humans. Herein, the first use of cyclodextrin guest-host inclusion complexation, fluorescence spectrophotometry, and chemometric approach to PAH (anthracene) and chiral-PAH analogue derivatives (1-(9-anthryl)-2,2,2-triflouroethanol (TFE)) analyses are reported. The binding constants (Kb), stoichiometry (n), and thermodynamic properties (Gibbs free energy (ΔG), enthalpy (ΔH), and entropy (ΔS)) of anthracene and enantiomers of TFE-methyl-ß-cyclodextrin (Me-ß-CD) guest-host complexes were also determined. Chemometric partial-least-square (PLS) regression analysis of emission spectra data of Me-ß-CD-guest-host inclusion complexes was used for the determination of anthracene and TFE enantiomer concentrations in Me-ß-CD-guest-host inclusion complex samples. The values of calculated Kb and negative ΔG suggest the thermodynamic favorability of anthracene-Me-ß-CD and enantiomeric of TFE-Me-ß-CD inclusion complexation reactions. However, anthracene-Me-ß-CD and enantiomer TFE-Me-ß-CD inclusion complexations showed notable differences in the binding affinity behaviors and thermodynamic properties. The PLS regression analysis resulted in square-correlation-coefficients of 0.997530 or better and a low LOD of 3.81×10-7M for anthracene and 3.48×10-8M for TFE enantiomers at physiological conditions. Most importantly, PLS regression accurately determined the anthracene and TFE enantiomer concentrations with an average low error of 2.31% for anthracene, 4.44% for R-TFE and 3.60% for S-TFE. The results of the study are highly significant because of its high sensitivity and accuracy for analysis of PAH and chiral PAH analogue derivatives without the need of an expensive chiral column, enantiomeric resolution, or use of a polarized light.