Advancements in natural membrane-based electrochemical biosensors for detecting endocrine-disrupting chemicals in food and environmental monitoring

Abstract

Selection and synthesis of a suitable electrochemical biosensor membrane can be very challenging due to competitive properties and performance of developed membranes, such as leaching of immobilized transducers and biorecognition elements, conductivity performance, hydrophilicity, durability of sensor membrane to be suitable for a longer period, and limit of detection of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). The primary objective of this study is to review the trend in the usage of food and natural resources as the alternative to synthetic membrane in enhancing electrochemical biosensor in detection of food pollutants in the application of food and water monitoring. A comprehensive review of scientific articles published between 2010 and 2024 on both synthetic and natural membrane additives was performed for electrochemical sensing of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in food and environmental monitoring. Based on the review conducted, it is proven that the application of synthetic membrane is more popular compared to natural membrane by 46% in 2023 and increasing by 60% in June 2024. The steep slope of increasing usage of synthetic membrane additives is incredibly significant; however, the usage of natural membrane and their additives is still lagging as there is a trend of only 6–30% increment yearly from 2010 to 2022 and an inclination to 60% that occurred from 2022 to 2023. Natural membrane additives isolated from food and natural resources in the electrochemical biosensor are vital in detecting EDCs in fresh and processed food and environment in situ, more robust, sensitive, and selective to abide to the international food safety laws.