for the Detection of Food

Food safety is a public health concern. Food contaminants could be metal ions, residues of pesticides, mycotoxins, drug residues, allergens, preservatives, and contaminants from food processing and packaging. The contamination hazards in the agricultural food chain include residues of agrochemicals and natural toxins. These chemical pollutants have serious effects on human health such as liver, kidney, and neurological syndromes even in the minimum limits. The food contamination with toxins and environmental pollutants occurs during the processing, packaging, preparing, storage, and transportation. Traditionally, food contaminants are detected by conventional analytical techniques. The other approach for detection of food contaminants is sensors. Sensors offer various advantages including simple use, high sensitivity and selectivity, user-friendly, on-site detection, rapid and low-cost operation. This chapter summarizes the different sensor applications in food contaminant detection and analysis.