Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178

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Trends in Food Science & Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tifs

Review

T
Recent developments in biosensors to combat agricultural challenges and
their future prospects
Monika Kundua,b,c, P. Krishnana, R.K. Kotnalab, Gajjala Sumanab,c,∗
a
Division of Agricultural Physics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India
b
CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi, 110012, India
c
AcSIR- CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi, 110012, India

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Background: Agriculture sector plays a strategic role in the self-sustaining economic development of a country by
Agriculture providing basic ingredients to mankind and raw material for industrialisation. Agriculture is much diversified
Food quality field, but continuing with technological growth at brisk pace. There is need of technical interventions in the
Biosensor basic principles of food processing, quality assurance, disaster risk identification, diagnosis, and prevention to
Sustainable development
achieve goal ofregional andglobal food security. Thus to improve consumer livelihood and optimal utilization of
resources, rapid, real-time, portable, and cost effective technologies are desired in agriculture. Recent ad-
vancements in biosensing technologies and material sciences have played crucial role in understanding agri-
cultural process dynamics through molecular recognising materials, antigen-antibody interaction and sub-
sequent transduction mechanism.
Scope and approach: In this article, current trends in the development of biosensors, impact of nanotechnology
and miniaturization of biosensors on addressing the new developments of agriculture strategies at different
levels have been extensively reviewed. The article intensively brings out the implications of biosensors in various
agricultural sectors and future need of improvement in the design and development techniques leading to
sustainable development.
Key findings and conclusion: Technological advancements in the area of nanobiosenors, bioelectronics, material
science, miniaturization techniques, electrode design, fabrication technology, nanolithography and microfluidics
have significantly influenced agriculture sector too. There is need to direct our research towards enhancing the
shelf life of a biosensor for increasing the acceptability among the end-users. Improvement in basic character-
istics of biosensors will lead to widespread application in major challenging areas in agriculture.

1. Introduction to be a challenging pollution source. A major part of population in

Agriculture is a source of income and employment for major section
of population. Global estimates indicate, the people engaged in agri-
culture are about 2.5 billion (Food & Agriculture, 2013). After green
revolution, development of various agricultural techniques, involving
chemical pesticides and herbicides led further enhanced crop yields,
through effectively controlling the weeds and pests infestation. Al-
though, the dependence on chemicals in green revolution agriculture
has contributed to the incredible gains in the production of cereals
globally, the widespread use of fertilizers and pesticides has caused
severe health and environmental problems too. Harmful residues of
pesticides have entered in the food chain and water cycle. Agricultural
chemicals such as fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide are imprecisely
applied in the field leading to serious runoff problems and emerge out
developing countries, is suffering from pesticide poisoning annually and
manytimes, it becomes an explosive fatal situation causing even deaths.
During early stages of plant development various nitrogen-containing
pesticides such as atrazin and propazin etc. are commonly used pesti-
cides in the field by farmers across the world for nutrient management
and as a preventive measure against diseases (Chauhan, Narang, & Jain,
2016). The other aspect of this practice has different consequence, as
the drift of sprayers adds to the air pollution and due to inhalation of
spray dust badly affects the health of the worker. The residues and the
spray droplets drifted also pollute the water resources.
Inspite of the deadly persisting effects of such chemicals, their de-
tection at the appropriate levels in the food still remains a challenge.
Although the existing chromatographic techniques such as high-per-
formance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC),

∗
Corresponding author. CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Marg, New Delhi, 110012, India.
E-mail address: sumanag@nplindia.org (G. Sumana).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2019.03.024

Available online 22 March 2019

Received 17 November 2017; Received in revised form 19 March 2019; Accepted 19 March 2019

0924-2244/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

M. Kundu, et al.
flow immunoanalysis, capillary electrophoresis and spectroscopic
techniques such as UV–Vis (Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy), FTIR
(Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy) and NMR (Nuclear magnetic
resonance spectroscopy) are advantageous due to being highly sensi-
tive, reliable and efficient for pesticide residue analysis, but these are
time consuming, laborious, expensive, complex, and bulky requiring
skilled technicians to operate (Fang & Ramasamy, 2015).
Among the emerging novel trends and streams in agriculture bio-
sensors are now gaining popularity in all sectors from farm to fork.
Biosensor is a self contained integrated tool for sensing and character-
ization of materials. The advancements in biosensors have passed
through different stages. The biocatalyst and transducers were initially
separated in earlier generations, and then the two components were
integrated in such an intimate fashion that removing one affected the
functionality of the other. Now in the modern biosensors, there is no
need of any mediator. In these type of biosensors, the enzyme is directly
reduced on the electrode surface (Zeinhom et al., 2018). In general, the
development of a biosensor device involves a set of steps including,
synthesis of sensing of material, selection of bioreceptor material,
complex medium containing target analyte, signal processing unit,
analysis, software development and final sensing unit as shown in
Fig. 1. The technological interventions in agriculture have explored
new dimensions for achieving food sustainability all over the world.
The user friendly technologies are easily adopted by the farming sector.
In this concern, biosensors have opened a new gateway for whole
agricultural community (farmers, researchers and end users) to get into
smart and precision agriculture. The agricultural biosensors can be
classified based on type of bio-recognition system used. Commonly used
bio-recognition systems involve antibody-antigen, enzyme-coenzyme-
substrate, and nucleic acids-complementary sequences. Additionally,
microorganisms, plant cells, animal cells and tissue can also be used as
bio-recognition element. Biosensors categorization based on signal
transduction mechanism involves groups such as electrochemical,
Fig. 1. Schematic of biosensor development for agricultural applications.
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Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
optical, piezoelectric or magnetic.
In post-harvest operations, various fungicides are applied in the
form of liquid sprays, or powder on horticultural crops (Silins,
Korhonen, & Stenius, 2014), cereals (Steinborn, Alder, Spitzke, Dork, &
Anastassiades, 2017), oil seed crops, floriculture produce and even on
fodder crops (Kotinagu & Krishnaiah, 2015) such as cotton and grass.
However, since these chemicals act through inhibition of acetylcholine
esterase (AChE), they also represent a risk to human health by causing
deadly cognitive and intellectual disorders and leads to death in most of
the cases (T. B. Ali, Schleret, Reilly, Chen, & Abagyan, 2015). While
looking at the residual effects of these pesticides, chlordecone is re-
sponsible for abnormal sperm production and less mobility, carcino-
genic lindane causes infertility in females and DDT is responsible for
male infertility through malfunctioning of male hormones secreting
organs (Nedellec, Rabl, & Dab, 2016). Apart from pesticides and other
such agrochemicals, illegal use of excessive chemical ripening agents
and preservatives are also threatening food quality.
Besides, the permitted limits of ripening chemicals such as ethylene
(Janssen et al., 2014), some of the banned chemicals such as calcium
carbide (Mahmud, Shibly, Hossain, Islam, & Islam, 2015; Ramachandra,
Gumpu, Nesakumar, Krishnan, & Rayappan, 2016) and ethylene glycol
(Goonatilake, 2008) are intensively used by the retailers and whole-
salers for earning benefits by large margins at low costs. Processing of
surplus fresh horticultural as well as animal food accompanied with
addition of preservatives and food additives not only ensures off the
season availability but also avoid the post-harvest loss. In recent stu-
dies, AChE based impedimetric biosensor has been developed to mea-
sure carbaryl and dichlorvos pesticides in tap water and lettuce samples
(Malvano, Albanese, Pilloton, Di Matteo, & Crescitelli, 2017). Novel
nanocomposites consisting of recently discovered nanometrials has
been a keen area of study for the researchers. Targeting the accurate
and reliable detection of pesticides in fruit, vegetable, and water sam-
ples, researchers have used a nanocomposite of 3D Graphene and Au as
M. Kundu, et al.
matrix material for sensing carbaryl pesticide (Rahmani, Bagheri,
Behbahani, Hajian, & Afkhami, 2018). With such developed sensors
based on novel nanostructures and nanocomposite low detection limits
with good recoveries has been obtained in real samples. Additionally
enzyme immobilization in biosensor development for pesticides leads to
improvement in sensitive as compared to free enzyme configurations
(Shamgsumova, Shurpik, Evtugyn, Stoikov, & Evtugyn, 2018). Agri-
cultural biosensors are now dealing with the in-situ analysis of crop
pollutants, pathogens and ultimately contributing to decision control
system in precision agriculture. Animal physiological studies are now
conducted via use of wearable biosensors in modern dairies. For de-
veloping highly sensitive agricultural biosensors, specifically those
working in liquid-solutions, stability is also an important aspect. The
commonly available chemicals used for some specific processes and
products in various fields are now-a-days illegally used to cheat the
consumers and earn an easy and profitable livelihood. One such che-
mical, formaldehyde, that is generally used to preserve dead human and
animal bodies, is illegally used for increasing shelf life and freshness of
fruits and vegetables. The malpractice of using preservatives such as
formaldehyde for creating false illusion to consumers is reported at
many places all over the world in food such as seafood (Goon, Bipasha,
Islam, & Hossain, 2014), fruits & vegetables (Wahed, Razzaq,
Dharmapuri, & Corrales, 2016), processed and packaged food
(Evershed & Temple, 2016). Rapid detection of these chemicals is the
need of the time, due to their toxicity, persistence and stability. In order
to combat the problem of food adulterations and contaminations, the
international food standards commission (Codex Alimentarius Com-
mission) has created an online database containing maximum residue
limits for pesticides and acceptable maximum residue limits in different
foods (FAO/WHO, 2017).
In this review, we are exploring role and applications of biosensors
in agriculture and food industry. The present and future problems,
existing methods and techniques for analysis and biosensor interven-
tions in broad areas of agriculture such as pre-harvest to post-harvest
agriculture including animal husbandry and aquaculture have been
discussed. The upcoming technological innovations and integrations
have been explored for improvements in specificity and sensitivity of
biosensors in future.
2. Biosensors for pre-harvest agriculture
Agriculture is a complex process including various practices, tech-
niques, methods and technologies from farm to fork. In agriculture
among the various crop stages, pre-harvest and post-harvest are the
broadly classified stages. During pre-harvest stage, the crop is affected
by aflatoxin contamination, deficiency of nutrients, phytohormone
imbalance, diseases, extreme weather conditions (drought and floods),
irrigation scheduling and lodging. The spread of microbial infestation
may take an epidemic form if not detected and controlled at right time.
Presently laboratory-based techniques including polymerase chain re-
action (PCR), immunofluorescence (IF), enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay (ELISA), flow cytometry (FCM) and gas chromatography-mass
spectrometry (GC-MS) are being used for the detection of plant dis-
eases. The expensive and bulky instrumental techniques such as ther-
mography, fluorescence and hyperspectral imaging are also in use for
characterisation and detection of plant health status. Moreover defi-
ciency of nutrients in crops may result in deterioration of final produce
quality and hence affect the production level too. Many important
nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and magnesium are found to be
declining over the time in cereals resulting in to deficiency diseases in
people (Guo, Nazim, Liang, & Yang, 2016). Since, crops are very sen-
sitive to the weather conditions, in both extreme hot and cold condi-
tions the regular physiochemical processes of plants are disturbed and
conditions of stress arises. Stress condition in plants is presently being
detected through changes in levels of chemical indicator using tradi-
tional techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography
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Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
(HPLC) and ELISA (Subraya, Diggs, & Porterfield, 2013). In plant stress
detection, the rapid and on the site technology is still the most desirable
one as compared to conventional methods. All the existing methods and
techniques to assess and analyse in-field problems in agriculture are
time consuming, laborious and are confined to laboratory level only.
With the passage of time biosensors have now intervened and
geared the agricultural development. Biosensors have most significantly
contributed to achieve the ever existing goal of precision in agriculture.
Recently enzyme based phosphate biosensors have been developed
using fluorescence transduction mechanism and developing fluorescent
nanoparticles for specific and rapid detection of phosphate (Kahveci,
Martinez-Tome, Mallavia, & Mateo, 2016). Deficiency of nutrients and
micronutrients such as nitrogen, calcium, zinc, phosphorous etc. as
been found to be correlated with the lodging phenomenon observed in
crops and in plants that are necessary to be detected so that the forecast
related to diseases can be real time and on regular basis (Barney,
Eberhart, Ohlert, Knutson, & Plunkett, 2015). The plant hormones also
called as phytohormones play an important role in control and reg-
ulation of physiological processes of development. With the changes in
the concentration levels of plant growth regulators, the content of
various plant phytochemicals also change accordingly. Recently, it has
been found that with the changes in plant growth regulators, the pro-
duction of health promoting anticancer phytochemicals such as, total β-
carotene content, total flavonoid content (TFC), total anthocyanin
content (TAC), and total phenolic content (TPC) (Lupetti, Vieira, &
Fatibello-Filho, 2004) can be substantially enhanced and further uti-
lised for pharmaceuticals. There are various physiological processes
taking place in the plants for producing chemicals in response to abiotic
stresses (abnormal temperature, ultraviolet, drought, floods etc.),
changes in levels of phytohormones (abscisic acid, gibberellins, cyto-
kinins, auxin, ethylene, salicylic acid etc.), seed dormancy and germi-
nation stages. In addition, phytohormones are easily decomposed by
external triggers such as heat, light, and oxygen. Thus, the exact level of
phytohormones in plants needs to be assessed for providing balanced
inputs in agriculture for ultimately improving quality of produce. Apart
from plant hormones, there are some signalling molecules such as jas-
monic acid in plants that probably have growth-regulating activities. In
recent times, biosensing technique such as immunoassay, electro-
chemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), time-
resolved spectroscopy, square wave voltammetry etc are being im-
mensely used for exploratory studies in crops as well as in foods. For
addressing problems related to imbalance of phytohormones and re-
lated consequences, biosensors have played a pivotal role. For abscisic
acid detection, a label-free electrochemical impedance immunosensor
has been developed using an anti-ABA antibody that is adsorbed on to a
porous nanogold film (Y.-W. Li, Xia, Wang, Jiang, & Xiao, 2008). With
the same biosensing technique different matrices have been tried to
obtain desired output. The results indicated that the abscisic acid in
plants can be detected successfully using an antobody based biosensor.
Researchers have used various nanomaterials and nanocomposites
to enhance the sensitivity, shelf life and get the precision in the bio-
sensing results. Nanomaterials have been synthesized from gold, iron,
copper, nickel etc to further synthesize nanocomposite with some base
material. In one such work, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
has been used to characterise the successful grown porous nanogold
film and consequently modification of the glassy carbon electrode for
gibberellins acid (GA) detection in plants. This cost effective im-
munosensor sensor has been designed by coupling immunoassay with
the square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) technique for
sensitivity, accuracy to determine the GA content in the hybrid rice
grain samples. (J. Li et al., 2005). Biosensors can also use polymers as
the material for the matrix. Following this approach, a low cost and
simple amperometric biosensor has been developed on polypyrrole
(PPy) coated on a disk graphite and used for the determination of sal-
icylic acid in real samples of plasma and milk (Zavar, Heydari, &
Rounaghi, 2013). The biosensor is generally designed to be specific to a
M. Kundu, et al.
biomaterial. But the response of a specific biomolecule may get inter-
ference from the responses arising from the other present elements and
compounds. In order to improve the selectivity of a biosensor, a real
time highly selective microbiosensor has been developed for determi-
nation of low nanomolar cytokinins concentrations in tomato xylem sap
exudates. The biosensor based on Cytokinin Dehydrogenase with nano-
molar sensitivity has fast response time of less than 10 s, exhibited
excellent pH stability and durability (Tian, Greplova, Frebort, Dale, &
Napier, 2014). In addition to detecting plant hormones, a ratiometric
biosensor has been developed for rapid, robust and highly sensitive
analysis and quantitative time-resolved monitoring of intracellular
auxin changes by injecting natural and synthetic auxins externally. It is
found that dynamic range of the sensor is within the physiological
auxin concentrations (Wend et al., 2013). The plant stresses are often
handled by expensive and unconventional methods, such as use of new
seed varieties, use of fertilizers, and application of pesticides. It is re-
commended that precautions are better than cure or remedies in case of
plant stresses otherwise at the calamity stage it will cause huge crop
loss and poor quality of the produce. But the early detection of the
alarming stress conditions of plants is still challenging. In this direction,
some biosensors have been developed to detect indicators or signalling
compounds of stress conditions of plants. It has been found that all
types of stress can be linked with production of some signalling mole-
cules such as levels of sugar in plants. Recently, to analyse the jasmo-
nate signalling in plants, a fluorescence based biosensor has been de-
veloped that exclusively provides data about hormone distribution in
conditions of plant abiotic and biotic stresses (Larrieu et al., 2015).
The advanced diseases detection is needed for maximizing pro-
ductivity and achieving agricultural sustainability through minimising
the disease induced damages during crops growth and development.
Biosensors can be developed for detection of various diseases causing
microbes. With the help of biosensors, real time microbial viability in
raw and processed food can be assessed non-destructively. In this di-
rection various techniques of biosensing have been applied to obtain
more precise and accurate measurements, also comparable to conven-
tional techniques. In this direction, an ATP bioluminescence biosensor
has been developed to determine the bacterial viability in milk and
other animal food (Eed, Abdel-Kader, El Tahan, Dai, & Amin, 2016).
Microbial viability is important to be detected in food to determine the
shelf life and further processing. Similarly for detection of tobacco
mosaic virus and cherry leaf roll virus, a biosensor based on virus-an-
tibody binding has been developed, providing results comparable to the
existing standard method such as ELISA and are acceptable as rapid and
efficient tool of measurement (Gramberg, Kintzios, Schmidt, Mewis, &
Ulrichs, 2012). In reported studies, efforts have been done to enhance
the limit of detection and sensitivity of a biosensor using novel type of
matrices made up of nanomaterials, especially of quantum dots, carbon
nanotubes and graphene and to enhance the specificity different bio-
recognition elements such as DNA, antibody, enzymes etc. can be used
depending upon the area of application (Fang & Ramasamy, 2015).
Water or moisture status in crop field is important determining factor
for various physiochemical processes in growth and development of
plants. Water is important not only for photosynthesis, but also for flow
of nutrients and many microelements necessary for healthy crop. An
optical fluorescence biosensor for plant water stress detection has been
reported (Chong, Liew, Li, & Asundi, 2007). In the reported study, with
the changes in moisture content in the plant the resulting current
changes accordingly. Thus the plant water stress condition can be easily
forecasted. An amperometric biosensor has been developed for quan-
tification of indole 3-acetic acid as a chemical indicator of water stress
in corn plants (Subraya et al., 2013). The electrochemical response as
measured was found to be well correlated with the changes in water
content of the corn plants. Presently, in various reported studies it has
been observed that the operational stability of this biosensor is limiting
its technological implications in various sectors. As harvesting of proper
mature fruits and vegetables ensure good quality and consumer
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Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
acceptability, sensing maturity of agricultural produce is very im-
portant for good post-harvest quality and enhanced shelf life. The
sorting of mature, immature and over mature produce is done before
sending for storage. The over mature fruits/vegetables will overripe and
have to be discarded, while immature fruits/vegetables will lead to
inferior eating quality for consumers. Thus only proper mature fruits/
vegetables should be harvested at proper time. This further enforces the
need for development of field portable and cost effective sensors/sen-
sing devices to determine the maturity of horticultural produce. Since
advancement of maturity or ripeness is linked with changes in phy-
siochemical properties such as total soluble solids (TSS), pH and titrable
acidity (TA) of horticultural crops, the real time measurement of these
parameters will guide the harvesting of crops at proper mature stage
only. Biosensors have been used for measurement of intrinsic quality
attributes of horticultural crops such as ascorbic acid (Vermeir et al.,
2007), total phenolic compounds (Lupetti et al., 2004) and L-arginine
(Verma, Singh, & Kaur, 2015). As the crop attains maturity, it is har-
vested and stored for further processing. Role of biosensors is very
significant in all the post-harvest processes.
3. Biosensors for post-harvest agriculture
Post-harvest agriculture is a complex aggregate of operations con-
sisting of harvesting, sorting, storage, processing and packaging. The
demand for reliable and inexpensive methods for the assessment of
fresh produce quality is expanding. In agriculture the food quality is
evaluated based on internal and external quality both. Internal quality
itself is determined by various factors such as, nutrients, TSS, pH,
acidity, enzymes etc., while external quality is determined by various
sensory attributes such as, colour, smell, texture etc. The internal
quality attributes though are the most important parameters are still
judged by consumers based on sensory examinations only and huge lots
are tested using biochemical analysis at laboratory levels. . Biosensors
offer a viable opportunity to fulfil this niche. Biosensors are now de-
veloped for catering very sensitive issues related to raw and processed
food. The biosensors have additional advantage of being on-site testing
tool for analysis in agriculture. Authenticating food beverages, con-
ventionally being done by gas chromatography, has been now in-
tervened by development of an optical ethanol biosensor (Kuswandi,
Irmawati, Hidayat, & Ahmad, 2014). Another challenge in post-harvest
agriculture is the perishability of farm produce that demands serious
attention as it is the prime cause of the recurring post-harvest food
losses. Most of the food items available have limited shelf life due to
presence of moisture, and suitable conditions for microbial growth.
Thus various food additives are added to food for maintaining its ap-
pearance, flavour and nutrition value for prevention of microbial de-
gradation and thus enhancing shelf life. Additives are required not only
in food preparation but also in packaging and transporting. Pre-
servatives or food additives that are used to enhance the shelf life of
food, add taste, flavour and mouth appealing looks are generally di-
rected to be used with maximum permissible prescribed limits
(Alimentarius, 2015). During food processing, if the quantity of such
chemicals exceeds the limit, these can be hazardous for health.
Food additives and flavour enhancers such as glutamate is very
oftenly used in processed food and beverage industry. Use of such
chemicals within the prescribed limits is essential for good health.
biosensors have been developed for detecting excessive usage of glu-
tamate (Soldatkina et al., 2017), artificial preservatives (Noor Aini,
Siddiquee, & Ampon, 2016), other food additives and artificially ri-
pening agents in food (Ramachandra et al., 2016) which is con-
ventionally being done by HPLC and gas chromatography techniques.
Many of the food additives that are now-a-day's being used include
artificial colours or dyes in sweets especially during festival seasons or
functions, flavour enhancers, emulsifiers, bulking agents, acids, sweet-
eners and thickeners (Khodjaeva, Bojnanska, Vietoris, & Sytar, 2013).
So there is need to check the concentrations of preservatives and
M. Kundu, et al.
additives in the food. In adjunct with the advantages of the upcoming
novel techniques and methods of food processing, the deliberate im-
precise addition of such chemicals have resulted in frequently occurring
food related poisoning. The analysis of food is essential for determi-
nation of chemicals banned to use because of ill effects to human
health. A food is judged as of acceptable quality if internal and external
ingredients are tested suitably. Different variety of food has different
attributes for assessment. In fruits, size, shape, aroma, flavour, texture,
juice content, brightness etc. are some of the sensory attributes for as-
sessment of quality. Determining the internal quality parameters such
as nutritional composition, soluble solids, pH, sugar content and acidity
involves complex chemical procedures.
With the introduction of biosensors for determination of these
quality parameters, sorting and grading of horticultural produce has
become easier. It has now become possible to label the ingredients of
fruits and vegetables as mark of quality. In this concern, various recent
research studies have been conducted for the detection of quality in-
dicators such as flavonoid content in citrus fruits (Ensafi, Karbalaei,
Heydari-Bafrooei, & Rezaei, 2016), glucose content in juices and nectar
(Dudchenko et al., 2016), histamine content in fish (Ye et al., 2016) and
xanthine detection in meat (Dervisevic, Dervisevic, Cevik, & Senel,
2017). One of the important attributes of food quality is freshness. In
most of the cases, freshness of agricultural produce decides consumer
acceptability and its price in the market. Now consumers are ready to
pay more prices for fresh and quality ensured food to maintain sound
health. All living organisms immediately start deteriorating just after
death due to rigor mortis. Most of the agricultural produce also follows
the same trend of being perishable. Thus the derived food of plant or
animal origin both should be preserved as per the international stan-
dards guidelines of codex alimentarius commission to ensure longer
shelf life. Moreover, consuming spoiled food may lead to food poisoning
and even death. Thus biosensors are required to determine quality of
such food rapidly, in situ, in real time and with higher precision. Pro-
gress has been undergoing in development of biosensors for sensing
various quality attributes of food such as freshness, aroma, nutrition,
texture, colour etc as reported for fish (Dalkiran, Erden, & Kilig, 2017),
meat (Boka, Adanyi, Virag, Sebela, & Kiss, 2012), fruits (Haginoya,
Suzuki, Tamiya, & Karube, 2016), vegetables (Romanov, Galelyuka,
Glushkov, Starodub, & Son'ko, 2011), packaged and processed food
(Kaur, Kumar, & Verma, 2014). An array of biosensors have been de-
veloped for simultaneous determination of multiple carbohydrates with
high selectivity, stability, and signal reproducibility (Soldatkin et al.,
2013). In recent times, the animal foods are also posing threat in terms
of residues in veterinary drugs and microbial contamination. The ve-
terinary drugs and vaccines used to protect animals against diseases are
generating residues in products derived from them. Meat, fish, eggs etc
are posing health hazards to the consumer (Beyene, 2016). Another
sensitive concern for health is food toxicity. All over the world, there
are various reported cases of toxicity such as cyanide in cassava, peanut
allergens, aflatoxin and dioxin (World Health, 2015). Acute food toxi-
cities and contaminations many a times prove to be severe and fatal for
human health with associated after effects, long-lasting disability and
death In all cases of water or food contaminations, the unhygienic
conditions of animal rearing, malnourishment and diseased animals,
improper sewage and air can be some of the possible reasons for mi-
croorganisms to easy prey animals and hence the evident carriers of
these lethal microorganisms are uncooked foods of animal origin, fruits
and vegetables infected with faeces, raw shellfish consisting of marine
bio toxins, frozen foods and also poultry food products. PCR based and
plate count methods are the present reliable ways to determine con-
taminations and resulting toxicity in food. But applications of DNA
based biosensors have replaced the existing methods by making the
detection more simple, rapid and precise. In recent study, the quality of
Bacillus Cereus contaminated infant food has been detected using a DNA
based biosensor (Izadi, Sheikh-Zeinoddin, Ensafi, & Soleimanian-Zad,
2016). A biosensor developed for the detection of E. Coli in drinking
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Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
water is found to be rapid and more sensitive technique than the con-
ventional ones also allowing convenience in field studies (Ettenauer,
Zuser, Kellner, Posnicek, & Brandl, 2015). In recent times, the geneti-
cally modified foods have also flooded the market with a claim for
better production and quality. The Challenges put greater responsibility
on food producers and handlers to ensure food safety. The researchers
have provided ample solutions to the consumers and farmers to handle
problems of food safety, but abiding the limitations of existing techni-
ques, biosensors have played significant role in differentiating and
screening traditional varieties from the genetically modified one.Gen-
etically modified foods can be distinguished from others based on
studying the biochemical parameters using various techniques.
Among various reported studies in this regard, a label free colori-
metric biosensor has been recently developed for identification of ge-
netically modified food with fast and sensitive technique (Jung et al.,
2015). Food safety and quality is one of the most pertinent issues today
in the world and is seeking attention and increasing concern for con-
sumers. Portable sensing devices such as biosensors are best suited for
preliminary testing of raw and processed food to exclude the toxic
compounds to ensure high quality product. Biosensors are likely to
modernize the agro-food industry as the best technology to monitor key
parameters along the processing and supply chain in order to ensure
food quality and safety.
4. Biosensors for artificially ripened fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are wholesome food and highly nutritious.
They constitute important ingredient in routine human diet. But they
are highly perishable owing to low shelf life. Climacteric fruits such as
bananas, mangoes, tomatoes and avocados are picked at proper mature
stage just before ripening has initiated, since ripened fruits do not ship
well, while non-climacteric fruits once harvested do not ripen further.
Thus they have to be cautiously harvested to ensure good quality. This
enables the fruit to be harvested, cooled, stored and transported longer
distances to where it will be marketed and consumed. Many times, in
order to fulfil the market demand, and earn profit, the fruits and ve-
getables are picked at an earlier stage of maturity. But eating quality of
such produce is unacceptable due to uneven ripening and bad taste.
Most often, the outer appearance of such produce is reflected to be
completely ripened with some artificial chemicals, hence doing fraud to
the consumers. Consumers usually judge the quality of fruits and ve-
getables by sensory attributes only. In general, the naturally ripened
fruits are often uneven in colour, while the artificially ripened gets
uniform external colour. The horticulturists often advise to pick fruits,
during its peak season and when it gets ripened naturally, since
choosing a ripe fruit during off season may perhaps be artificially ri-
pened as it is not genetically ripened. Recently, farmers have started
harvesting fruits and vegetables prematurely and later ripening with
the use of artificial ripening agents so as to fetch good prices in the
season ahead. This malpractice leads to poisonous chemicals and their
residues to be deposited in fruits and vegetables. These ripening agents
along with their chemical residual impurities are perilous for health
(Ahmad & Siddiqui, 2015).
To determine the health effects of these chemicals various studies
have been conducted on mechanisms, effects on fruit quality and nu-
trition value. Artificial ripening agents such as calcium carbide produce
acetylene in presence of water which further diffuses through the skin
of fruits and act like ethylene in natural ripening process as,
CaC2 + 2H2 O → C2 H2 + Ca (OH )2
Moreover the industrial grade CaC2 has impurities of arsenic and
phosphorous hydrides that are harmful for the workers applying CaC2
onto fruits (Islam, Mursalat, & Khan, 2016). While widely used ethylene
and methyl jasmonate are reported as non-toxic for human consump-
tion; however, they are relatively expensive. Thus in spite of being
toxic, low-cost chemicals such as calcium carbide (Ur-Rahman,
M. Kundu, et al.
Chowdhury, & Alam, 2008), ethylene glycol (Goonatilake, 2008), and
ethephon (Hakim et al., 2012) are reported to be commonly used to
artificially trigger the ripening process by the retailers and wholesalers.
Chemicals like calcium carbide, ethephon and oxytocin are reportedly
being used in fruit and vegetable markets or farms for artificial ripening
of immaturely harvested fruits and many times increasing the size of in-
field fruits and vegetables respectively. Calcium carbide is a carcino-
genic agent and in most of the countries it is banned to be used for other
such practices except industrial application. Ethephon is a plant growth
regulator and so it is not recommended as a ripening trigger for many
fruits. The decomposition of ethephon in presence of water produces
ethylene as (Cunha et al., 2017),
Cl − CH2 − CH2 − PO3 H2 + OH− → H3 PO4 + Cl− + CH2 = CH2
Likewise oxytocin, used as a drug in veterinary sector and is not
recommended for use in fruits and vegetables. It has been found to be
frequently used for extraordinary growth of in-field horticultural crops
(Chandravathi, Mahadevan, Kumari, & Ahamed, 2016). In spite of ex-
istence of all these regulations, these banned chemicals are illegally
being used. Consumption of fruits ripened with calcium carbide possess
a health risk as when consumed these fruits may cause some in-
flammatory effect, trigger some allergic reactions and have an adverse
effect on the kidneys. It can cause alterations in some haematological
parameters like total WBC, lymphocytes and granulocytes. The liver
and kidney may be impaired as well (Asif, 2012; Fattah & Ali, 2010;
Mursalat, Rony, Rahman, Islam, & Khan, 2013). Due to alkaline nature
of calcium carbide, it irritates the mucosal tissue in the abdominal re-
gion. There are acute health effects due to exposure to calcium carbide.
It causes burning in eyes, skin, skin ulcers; irritation in mouth, nose and
throat, lungs, pulmonary oedema, Calcium carbide contains traces of
Arsenic and Phosphorus. Exposure to arsenic or phosphorous causes
vomiting, acute diarrhoea, weakness, numbness in legs and hands, low
blood pressure. Ethylene glycol (C2H6O2) is another chemical com-
monly used in many industrial applications for anti-freezing and
cooling. Ethylene glycol is being used as ripening agent for fruits in
colder climatic conditions, as it is easily soluble in water. If swallowed,
it is poisonous and may cause kidney failure. Its consumption may lead
to excessive salivation, muscle twitching, inhibition of RBC and choli-
nesterase inhibition (Seo et al., 2012). Thus detection of excessively
used artificially ripening agents is researchable issue all over the world
due to the fact that the trace residues are sometimes volatiles and de-
grade easily making the detection a complex process.
Existing techniques such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
(GC-MS) and HPLC provides the standardmeasurement of these che-
micals or their residues. These techniques are laborious, time con-
suming, expensive and require skilled manpower to perform the testing.
The ever existing need of rapid, specific and highly sensitive methods
for this challenging issue have focussed our research efforts towards
search for real-time, non-destructive, in-field biosensors. In a recent
study, a biosensor has been developed for detection of calcium carbide
ripening in mangoes through inhibition of AChE by the mixture of CaO2
and C2H2 has been investigated observing the amperometric current
response of Pt/CeO2/AChE bioelectrode (Ramachandra et al., 2016). It
is well established that the naturally ripened fruits differ from the ar-
tificially ripened fruits in the nutrients, total soluble solids (TSS), ti-
trable acidity (TA) and sensory attributes of quality. Glucose biosensors
can be used to determine glucose content in fruits and hence can be
correlated with their ripeness status (Dudchenko et al., 2016; Haginoya
et al., 2016). In case of artificial ripening agents, the impurity residues
or the by-products left on the surface or in peel of fruits can also be
detected as indicator of state of ripening. Biosensors can be used for the
detection of by-product gases released during decompositions of che-
mical compounds during various horticultural processes. More research
and development should be directed towards devising solutions for
maintaining quality with enhanced shelf life of perishable crops with
suitable interventions of various biosensors.
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Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
5. Biosensors for intelligent food packaging
One of the most challenging aspects of food sustainability is the
management of food excess. The bumper productions of food every year
in world need to be managed suitably so as to be judiciously consumed,
stored or processed in to value added products to minimise food was-
tages. About 30% of the annual world food produced is wasted. Out of
this, wastage in different agricultural produce is as, 30% for cereals,
40–50% for root crops, fruits and vegetables, 20% for oil seeds, meat,
dairy and 35% for fish (Fao, 2013). Moreover the developed and de-
veloping countries have different share of wastage. The rich and de-
veloped countries waste more food as compared to developing coun-
tries. In developing countries major losses occur at post-harvest and
processing stage (40%) while in developed countries more than 40% of
losses occur at retail and consumer levels. The raw food storage and
processed food packaging technologies have a major role to play and
will contribute significantly in reducing the losses to a greater extent.
Conventionally, the farmer has a practice of storing the farm produce in
the field itself before sending it for sale or log term storage if needs to
maintain the stock. While in developed countries amenities and facil-
ities of storage structures is more than in developing countries, in both
the economies, the microenvironment of storage structures needs a
regular and continuous monitoring for controlling the determining
factors of shelf life of produce or produce (Kuswandi, Wicaksono,
Abdullah, Heng, & Ahmad, 2011; Sassolas, Prieto-Simon, & Marty,
2012).
Biosensors have played important role in environment controlled
storage and intelligent food packaging. The packaging optimization
strategies should be adopted to prevent contamination, loss of scent and
moisture and hence finally reduce food waste. Smart packaging with
controlled gaseous microenvironment inside has been now advanced
with intelligent packaging. In intelligent packaging the food is pack-
aged not only to enhance shelf life but also to track the changes in
internal constituents with time and place. Intelligent tags and stickers
are placed inside the package to reflect the degradation of packed
material with the passage of time, if any. Smart packaging with in-
telligent tags and stickers when integrated with direct biosensing will
be able to directly communicate with the consumer via electronic de-
vices that provide visual user friendly indicative information (Saini,
Sillard, Belgacem, & Bras, 2016). These intelligent tags work by sensing
through a polymer film or polymer matrix integrated with nanobio-
sensor and radio frequency identification (RFID) components. The en-
vironment inside the food packet consisting of gases such as oxygen,
carbon dioxide, ethylene etc will be detected by suitable molecular
recognising materials (enzyme, antibody, cell and microorganisms) in
polymer film and further transduction reflects the chemical changes as
measurable output. For regular track of packaged food data, RFID tags
can be integrated with the food packets. Each of the RFID unit consists
of a transponder (tag); including antenna for receiving and transmitting
signals and a microchip for storage of data, and a reader for further
communicating the data. Some intelligent tags available in the market
for temperature and other quality indicators of food are: Timestrip®,
Colour-Therm, Thermax, CheckPoint, Fresh-check, Onvu™, SensorQ®,
RipeSense, CS8304, Fresh Tag, Easy2log®, Temptrip and O2 Sense™
(Fuertes et al., 2016; Pavelkova, 2013) as in Fig. 2(a). Biosensors for
food packaging can function in particular physico-chemical conditions
in the packaged microenvironment. Their widespread application in
this sector is limited by some factors. Such devices need to work in wide
temperature ranges, humidity, exposure to light, and gaseous con-
centrations. Fast responses and high throughput are required for real-
time and online identification of improperly sealed packets and further
remove them from the supply chain. Many types of biosensors in-
tegrated for intelligent packaging have been realised but not commer-
cialised due to limitations of high sensitivity and reversibility. Apart
from intelligent food packaging, intelligent food logistics as a large
scale version of the concept is generally desired for long distance
M. Kundu, et al.
Fig. 2. (a) Schematic representation of temperature indicator biosensor and (b) Ripeness biosensor tag for fruits and vegetables (c) biosensor film for freshness of
meat and fresh cut fruits based on gas sensing.
transportation. Presently, there are some simple cold chain solutions
providing real-time monitoring of the temperature during transporta-
tion of agricultural produce. Various gas concentrations inside the
storage chambers such as ethylene, as an indicator of unwanted ri-
pening, and volatile components to indicate mould infections are also
required to be monitored and controlled by intelligent food logistics
during long distance transportation as shown in Fig. 2(b).
6. Biosensors for heavy metal deposits in soil and water
Contamination of soil is an important concern throughout the
world. The metal traces get piled up in plants from the soil through
roots. Soil health is generally indicated by various physical, chemical
and biological properties. These properties are linked to important
functions in plant. Moreover the soil health ultimately is linked to
human health, as poor soils yield fewer crops with poor quality pro-
duce. Ensuring good soil health is not only needed for nutritional en-
riched food but also a means of improving air and water quality
through reduction of soil erosion and deforestation. The metal elements
in trace amounts are essential plant nutrients for accomplishing the day
to day physiochemical processes. The source of these elements is water,
soil and air. Pollution of these resources is, causing increased quantity
of heavy metal and elements, the accumulation of them in plant
through absorption by roots is a serious problem as the plants are ul-
timately an integral part of human food chain. The imbalance propor-
tions of macronutrients, micronutrients and other essential elements in
plants hinders the biological processes and retards or accelerates some
of the vital compounds such as enzymes, vitamins, hormones etc.
In recent years the industrialisation and mechanisation has caused
an increase in the harmful emissions and effluents in air and water
leading to soil pollution ultimately as heavy metals deposits therein.
Heavy metals such as mercury (Bontidean et al., 2004), arsenic
(Shrivastava, Ghosh, Dash, & Bose, 2015), lead (Davis et al., 2016),
chromium (H. Oliveira, 2012), Zinc, cadmium and copper
(Wyszkowska, Borowik, Kucharski, & Kucharski, 2013) are commonly
found in contaminated soils. The elevated levels of these heavy metals
and elements are proving lethal for soil health and hence for human.
One of these pollutants, Nickel, generally get deposited at the surface of
soil due to deposition by industrial and agricultural activities. Nickel
may present a major problem in areas near towns, in industrial areas, or
even in land irrigated with sewage sludge. Increased levels of nickel
inhibit cell division at root meristem and retards plant growth.
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Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
Nevertheless Ni is also involved in inhibition of compounds, germina-
tion and chlorophyll synthesis (Bhalerao, Sharma, & Poojari, 2015).
Recent studies have reported negative effects of nickel on photosynth-
esis and respiration. The signalling symptoms of Ni toxicity are re-
flected as induced decline in the water content of plants. Another pol-
lutant in this category is chromium. Its major source is industry
processes such as dyeing, alloying, tanning etc. Chromium in excess
concentration affects overall growth and development of plants. It af-
fects germination, stem growth, root growth, leaf growth and yield.
Moreover it does affects the physiological processes such as photo-
synthesis, mineral nutrition, genotoxicity, enzymes and other important
compounds (H. Oliveira, 2012). Apart from these there are heavy me-
tals such as copper, cadmium, lead etc causing toxicity in the en-
vironment.
Most of the time, the soil and water pollutants inhibit photo-
synthetic process and hence lead to increase in fluorescence emission.
Also, the presence of heavy metals increases oxidative stress in plants,
which further triggers synthesis of pigments like chlorophyll and β-
carotene. Recently this field is intervened by biosensors in areas of
detecting the presence of soil ingredients, and water pollutants. Among
the various efforts in this direction, a low cost, sensible and easy to
operate enzyme based conductometric, colorimetric and potentiometric
biosensor for copper, cadmium and lead have been reported (Tekaya
et al., 2014). As soils are interface between agriculture and environ-
ment, soil fertility and water bodies such as rivers and lakes are con-
tinuously being polluted by effluents from industries and factories. In-
gestion of food grown on such soil and water will lead to serious
cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, hormonal imbalances, in-
fertility, allergies and malfunction of vital organs. The continuous,
rapid, precise and sensitive detection of pollutants and pathogens is
essential for good soil health and water. Highly accurate sensors are
required for in-situ and real time monitoring of these natural occurring
resources in fields. Another pollutant found in drinking water and soil is
arsenic.
The permissible arsenic concentration in drinking water is 10 μg/L,
as is recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) (Chakraborti,
2016). For precisely measuring such a low concentrations very so-
phisticated and expensive instruments are needed. Research studies are
now a day's dedicated for on the spot, rapid and real-time detection of
arsenic using cost effective technologies such as biosensors. Enormous
advantages of biosensors such as sensitivity, specificity, simplicity, low
cost, fast response time, easy to use, portability and being real-time
M. Kundu, et al.
makes it lucrative technology for adoption as compared to traditional
ones. Recently, an amperometric acetylcholinesterase biosensor has
been developed for malathion and chlorpyrifos toxicity in water with
good storage stability and low detection limit as compared to GC-MS
and HPLC (Chauhan et al., 2016).
Drinking water microbial contaminations also have been success-
fully quantified with various biosensors. One such biosensor based on
electrochemical method to determine E. Coli in drinking water is re-
ported as highly sensitive and good reproducibility in different samples
as compared to PCR based method (Ettenauer et al., 2015). A real-time
colorimetric and potentiometric biosensor has been developed for
qualitative and qualitative analysis of toxicity of heavy metals in soil,
milk, fruits and vegetables, and ground water (Kaur et al., 2014). Bio-
sensor is reported with high specificity, low manufacturing cost, fast
response time and ease of use as compared to other methods such as
HPLC, optical emission spectroscopy, atomic absorption spectro-pho-
tometry (AAS). Although lots of research studies have been carried in
this field but the commercialised biosensor technology is still awaited.
Thus more devoted efforts are needed for bringing out the direct ap-
plication of developed biosensor for use in real-time, in-field conditions
by end users. Present and ever sustaining technological research prio-
rities and challenges in major problem domains of agriculture sector
through interventions of biosensors have been furnished in Table 1. It is
evident that long detection time, interference from the potential com-
pounds, non-specificity, lack of real-time measurements, short storage
stability, and lack of field portability and on the spot measurements are
some of the listed limitation which are to be overcome in future bio-
sensor researches. Thus the dream of fully automated quality assess-
ment systems is a little far away from realization without tackling the
existing technological challenges.
7. Biosensors for animal husbandry
Since last few decades the small and individualised farms have been
now revolutionised and modernised to become more automated and
industrialised. Animal husbandry in agriculture includes animals and
animal products such as meat, fibre, milk and eggs that contribute
significantly to the food bowl in a country. All over the world, a large
number of farmers depend on animals for earning their livelihood.
Presently the diversified livestock farming from small stakeholders to
large farming systems directed towards increased productions and an-
imal food favours the concept of livestock farming with care and sus-
tainable food productions. In earlier times, an individual takes care of
few of the cattle by devoting whole day and observing each and every
animal with personal attention only without any technological aid. The
traditional practices of rearing and caring livestock are laborious, re-
quire more manpower and experienced personnel for preliminary
testing of general well being. In steadily, now modernised farms engage
few people to take care of large number of animals though use of
technological interventions in the concerned field. Right now, there is
lack of cost effective portable diagnostic tests or devices for early de-
tection of diseases in farming animals. This necessitates the need to
develop a system for real time monitoring the animal health and
farming system. Since consumer's demand for food is fulfilled by
farming, there is immediate need to look at food nourishment issue
also. With increased annual income per capita, people have started
consuming more meat and dairy products every year. This way cattle-
rearing has become a lucrative job now-a-days due to hiked market
demand and shortage supply. But it has been reported by Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that agriculture is re-
sponsible for 18% of the total release of greenhouse gases world-wide
(Fao, 2013). The major factor contributing to these emissions come
from cattle-breeding.
In the poultry farms and dairies the various environmental polluting
gases such as ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O),
hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are released as a
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Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
result of various metabolic activities that are harmful for human health
(Ni et al., 2017). In all these sectors of animal husbandry, biosensors
have very important role to play for tackling the related problems by
suggesting the rapid and accurate solution. To quantify these gases in
animal shelters, various biosensors have been developed for specific
detection of emitted gases (T. Xu et al., 2016). There is need to measure
the real time dynamic changes in animal body with respect to changes
in physiological state and metabolism. While the conventional methods
and techniques lacks in specificity and are time consuming, biosensors
can be now used to characterise the animal feed and their products in
terms of nutritional composition and anti-nutritional contents. Along
with this bioactive compound, chemical and microbial contaminants
can also be determined for development of commercialised feed pro-
duction and processing plants.
In dairy animals the production levels and milking capacity is in-
fluenced by many factors. Timely detection of causative agents and
their quantification is the need of hour. For the detection of proges-
terone hormone levels in dairy animals, an electroimmunosensor is
found to be more sensitive and rapid than ELISA technique (Zhang, Du,
Liu, Xia, & Sun, 2013). Any milk adulterations can easily be assessed
with the help of biosensors as is recently reported being done in goat
milk using monolithically integrated optoelectronic biosensor. Bio-
sensors can suitably differentiate various adulterations such as water,
cow milk, buffalo milk and also the chemicals (Angelopoulou et al.,
2015). Moreover, the highly infectious diseases in cattle are very ha-
zardous for their own health and also for the economy of a country as it
will lead to decline of the productivity in livestock industry and also the
product consumption. There are numerous indicators of such diseases.
General well being of animals has been measured by heartbeat, breath
rate and mobility using biosensors (Park & Ha, 2015). Other body
movements such as jaw movements can also be used as indicator for
biosensing feeding behaviour, grazing efficiency and breath analysis.
Even the volatile organic compounds released from skin, breath, faeces,
urine and body fluids due to biochemical reactions and pathogenic
activities can be used as biomarkers for development of biosensors.
Biosensor has been developed for early detection of foot and mouth
diseases by exploiting antibody-antigen interaction, for rapid and on
site analysis (Bhatta et al., 2012). Mastitis is another commonly oc-
curring disease in milking cattle that severely affects the yield and
quality of dairy animals that further reduces the economic benefits of
farmers. Biosensing based point of care technology has been used for
detection of bacteria responsible for mastitis in milking cows (Duarte
et al., 2016). The biosensor once developed for these diseases can be
further upgraded to detect other pathogenic diseases. Another lethal
disease in dairy cattle is subclinical ketosis that occurs due to high
serum ketone body concentrations without observed clinical signs.
Among the existing methods to detect this disease are blood β-hydro-
xybutyrate test, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Biosensors have been
found to be suitable sensing devices for dairy cattle disease diagnosis
from samples of blood serum or milk. A micro fluidic biosensor has
been developed for subclinical ketosis diagnosis in farming animals
through detection of blood β-hydroxybutyrate (Weng, Zhao,
Neethirajan, & Duffield, 2015). This has explored a new pathway to-
wards early detection of lethal generally occurring diseases in animals.
Table 2 lists some of the fatal diseases in plants and livestocks, their
biomarkers and biosensing technique used for early diagnosis, detection
and staging of the problem.
Now-a-days the modern dairies are well equipped and automated
with suitable technologies to perform all the routine activities such as
cattle health monitoring, milking, processing and final packaging of
products. Biosensors are now integrated with RFID tags for online and
instant study of health of animals and keep the record for further
analysis (Neethirajan, 2017). Such technological interventions not only
ensure good quality but also the fast and smart delivery of dairy pro-
ducts. The control and monitoring systems are integrated systems with

Table 1
Comparison of conventional techniques and biosensor technology in combating some of the major problems in agriculture sector.
S. No. Broad Problem Area
Pre-Harvest Agriculture
1. Determination of heavy
metal contamination
2. Plant water stress detection
3. Determine Crop lodging
tendency based on nitrogen
content
4. Determine dynamics of
plant hormone signalling
(Jasmonic acid) due to
biotic and abiotic stress
5. Determine carbon dioxide
concentration
6. To determine free and
conjugated salicylic acid
165
7. Determine nitrogen content
in plants
8. Evaluation of microbial
viability
9. Quantification of Indole 3-
Acetic Acid in Plant
Stress Responses
Post-Harvest Agriculture
10. Determine artificial
preservatives (formalin)
11 Determine excess of flavor
enhancers (Glutamate)
12. Determine glucose content
in juices
13. Excessive use of artificially
ripening agents
14. Authenticating food
products
M. Kundu, et al.
Affected Agricultural Conventional Techniques/Existing Type of Biosensor Intervention Advantage over Conventional Limitations References
Sector Methods Techniques
Soil, fruits and HPLC, optical emission spectroscopy, Colorimetric and Qualitative and quantitative More ion selective electrodes are Kaur et al. (2014)
vegetables, ground Atomic Absorption potentiometric biosensor analysis of toxicity, real time required to detect a specific
water, Spectro-photometry biosensor with specificity, low contaminant and designing ion
manufacturing cost, higher limits of selective electrode is tedious
detection, fast response time, ease of
use and portability
Cereals, floriculture Biochemical and chemical methods Optical fluorescence Rapid, time saving and non- As detection time is ∼2 h, it is not Chong et al. (2007)
and horticultural crops, destructive sensing suitable for on the spot real time
Petunia hybrida measurements
Cereals crops Image analysis, Texture analysis, Immuno Fluorescence method Label-free, rapid, sensitive and Useful only for first-level screening as Raul et al. (2016)
Anatomical and chemical inexpensive, portable test strip lodging depends on several factors
characteristics based methods
Cereals crops HPLC and GC/MS Fluorescence biosensor Rapid response, specificity and good Decrease in fluorescence due to Larrieu et al. (2015)
reproducibility interference by other hormones
present
Coriander and Red leaf Standard titration method, Partial Optical fiber based biosensor Low cost, portable and easily Comparison with conventional Dhale, Dhongade,
amaranth pressure method operatable methods is not reported Aiyer, and Kodam
(2015)
Arabidopsis plant HPLC and GC/MS Amperometric biosensor based Simple, rapid, inexpensive and Cost and time can be further reduced Zavar et al. (2013)
on Polypyrrole-Banana tissue quantifies higher salicylic acid than by adopting formats of tissue
composite GC/MS based method grinding, Salicylic acid extraction and
hydrolysis
Cereal crops Kjeldahl method, Dumas and Nitrogen Biosensor strain As compared to conventional The nitrogen sensor has broad screen Barney et al. (2015)
digestion methods methods, it is time saving, and fast potential with limited specificity
Raw and processed Plate count methods, spectroscopy, ATP bioluminescence biosensor Non-destructive, real-time assay, ATP assay can only be an adjunct Eed et al. (2016)
food Bacterial spore based technique rapid and efficient approach in nonspecific detection and
quantification of bacteria in food
products including milk and animal
feed.
Detect plant water HPLC and ELISA Amperometric biosensor Simple, cheap and reliable Major interference (∼20–25%)from Subraya et al. (2013)
stress condition in corn technique that doesn't require ascorbate is observed and operational
plants sample purification and antibody stability is limited to 15 samples only
development
Fish and seafood GC-MS, HPLC, E-nose, Electrochemical formaldehyde Simple, rapid, highly accurate than Due to very short shelf life of 7 h (70 Noor Aini et al.
Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
I-tongue, NIR spectroscopy biosensor existing techniques samples), it doesn't have (2016)
technological implications
Food and pharmaceuticals Potentiometric titration Amperometric Glutamate Good response reproducibility and The system was studied with Soldatkina et al.
methods, soectrophotometric biosensor operational stability synthetic samples and not validated (2017)
methods, HPLC with real samples. Also the testing for
potential interferences was not done
Juices and nectar HPLC Conductometric Glucose Good storage stability, good signal Due to short duration storage stability Dudchenko et al.
oxidased based biosensor reproducibility and sensitivity of 18 days, it lacks technological (2016)
implications
Mango, Banana, Apple Papaya Gas chromatography-Mass Electrochemical, Pt/CeO2/ Highly selective, reproducible, Less sensitive as compared to gas (Janssen et al., 2014)
and Chikoo etc. spectrometry (GC-MS), HPLC AChE bioelectrode sensitive and rapid chromatography and infrared (Ramachandra et al.,
technique 2016)
Fermented beverages Gas chromatography Optical ethanol biosensor Good reproducibility and storage Interference by presence of catalase Kuswandi et al.
stability and agreement with reduces biosensor response by ∼35% (2014)
standard methods
(continued on next page)
 M. Kundu, et al.
Table 1 (continued)

S. No. Broad Problem Area Affected Agricultural Conventional Techniques/Existing Type of Biosensor Intervention Advantage over Conventional Limitations References
Sector Methods Techniques

15. Quality assessment of Frozen Saury fish and other Quality index, microbiological Electrochemical biosensor for Simple operational process, time Long time stability and response time Ye et al. (2016)
frozen food seafood and sensory methods histamine determination saving, specific and highly sensitive, studies have not been reported
low detection limit of 3 nM
16. Determine Agricultural Water GC-MS and HPLC Amperometric Good storage stability and low Biosensor lacks specificity and it is Chauhan et al.
chemicals residues in water acetylcholinesterase biosensor detection limit found to be more sensitive to (2016)
for malathion and chlorpyrofos malathion than chlorpyrofos
17. Contaminations in infant Detection of Bacillus Cereus in PCR based methods and plate DNA based biosensor Rapid, low cost and high sensitivity Biosensor lacks specificity and Ettenauer et al.
food infant food count methods portability for in -field applications (2015)
18. Drinking water Drinking water E. Coli PCR based methods and plate Electrochemical method Highly sensitive and good Lacks real time continuous Ettenauer et al.
contaminants detection count methods reproducibility monitoring of contaminants due to (2015)
long detection time (8 h)
19. Chemical residues in fruits Detection of GC-MS and HPLC Colorimetric biosensing method Good reproducibility and high Colour developing speed is slow as Sun et al. (2017)
and vegetables organophosphates and using acetylcholinesterase sensitivity compared to speed of inhibition of
carbamate residues in fruits (AChE) AChE activity by pesticides
and vegetables
20. Detection of Genetically Agricultural crops such as PCR based tests, protein based Colorimetric Biosensor Label-free bacterial detection, rapid It needs processing for protein Jung et al. (2015)
Modified food cereals, vegetables and fruits methods and DNA extraction analysis,∼4 times faster than extraction.
methods conventional methods, simple,
sensitive and onsite testing
21. Increased levels of Crops and seafood Chromatography, Electrochemical, optical Practically convenient to use, highly Different biosensor for different toxin Srivastava et al.
mycotoxins and marine Fluorescence, Ultra violet sensitive is required (2014)
biotoxins due to climate absorption, spectrometry
change
22. Quality assessment of Apple juice and other HPLC, Spread plate method Colorimetric biosensor Non-invasive and fast technique The change in the colour depends Dos Santod Pires
packaged juices intelligently packaged food and sensory methods both on the type of the micro- 2011
166

organism and the quantity of the

same. Therefore, both the type and
quantity cannot be sensed
simultaneously.
23. Quality assessment of meat Animal meat Sensory methods, quality Electrochemical biosensor for Good linear range, low detection Biosensor is specific to only one of the Dervisevic et al.
index methods, enzymatic xanthine detection for meat limit, not prone to significant factor of quality of meat. For market (2017)
methods, freshness interference from other biochemical acceptability, devices based on
compounds overall quality index should be
developed
24. Determine flavonoid Citrus fruits and juices HPLC Amperometric DNA biosensor Precise, fast response time and good As it is based on DNA hybridisation Ensafi et al. (2016)
content sensitivity principle, it has limitation of
specificity

Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178

25. Determine excessive use of Processed food stuffs Thin layer chromatography Nanowire based biosensor using Highly sensitive This patent claims the Detection of Hong, Lee, and Lee
food additives various materials such as sodium mono glutamate. (2011)
silicon, zinc oxide and The comparison characteristics of the
vanadium oxide sensor performance with respect to
size of nanowires, material property
and the quantity of enzyme is not
discussed.
Animal Husbandry
26. Determine subclinical Farming animals Blood BHBA(β-hydroxybutyric Microfluidic sensor for β- Rapid, on farm detection, cost Stability study was not done and thus Weng et al. (2015)
ketosis diagnosis acid)test, NMR spectroscopy Hydroxybutyrate effective as compared to not suitable for real time continuous
and FTIR spectroscopy conventional methods monitoring
27. Detect occurrence of Cattles Scheffe's method, testing Electrochemical biosensor Detects metabolic diseases of cattles The shelf life studies of the sensor are Neethirajan (2017)
metabolic diseases in blood or milk samples not reported in this patent
animals
28. Determine foot and mouth Cloven-hooved animals PCR based methods and ELISA Optical biosensor In field detection and rapid testing On field testing has not been Bhatta et al. (2012)
diseases test at lower costs demonstrated
(continued on next page)
 M. Kundu, et al.
Table 1 (continued)

S. No. Broad Problem Area Affected Agricultural Conventional Techniques/Existing Type of Biosensor Intervention Advantage over Conventional Limitations References
Sector Methods Techniques

29. Detection of progesterone Bovine milk ELISA test Electro- immunosensor Simple, rapid, fast and sensitive Shelf life ∼4–5 days and operational Zhang et al. (2013)
in dairy animals stability∼15 min
30. Assessment of milk Goat milk ELISA test Monolithically integrated Label free, fast, highly sensitive, and Shelf life ∼2–3 days Angelopoulou et al.
adulteration optoelectronic biosensor small in size (2015)
31. Determine mastitis diseases Milking animals Somatic cell count methods Magnetic biosensor Rapid, non-destructive and highly Microbiological misidentification Duarte et al. (2016)
(California Mastitis Test, sensitive technique ratio of 32.6% as compared to PCR
Wisconsin Mastitis Test), PCR analysis was obtained
methods
Aquaculture
32. Determine fish freshness Quality of fish products Quality index methods and Electrochemical biosensor Short response time, high sensitivity The biosensor can be modified to a Dalkiran, Erden, and
sensory methods and good reproducibility system giving freshness index Kilic (2017)
33. Determine histamine Fish meat ELISA, LC-MS and HPLC Amperometric biosensor Reliable, low detection limit, The biosensing system lacks Apetrei and Apetrei
content sensitive measurement of percentage of (2016)
spoilage in terms of histamine after
post-mortem of fish
34. Determine water quality in Fish productivity Biological Oxygen Demand Cell culture based biosensor Quick and specific analysis allows The testing on Tan and Schirmer
aquarium or fish ponds (BOD)test, Winkler method reproducible and accurate results (2017)
and physical methods
35. Determine stress in fish Glucose concentration in Live HPLC, spectrophotometry Electrochemical biosensor Rapid, convenient and accurate Not a reliable indicator of stress as Wu et al. (2015)
Fish there are many other stress indicators
36. Determine formalin Fish meat HPLC, Digital image analysis Electrochemical formaldehyde Highly specific and quick requiring No in field device application Noor Aini et al.
adulteration and Spectroscopy biosensor no skilled experts (2016)
37. To determine effect of Marine fishes GC-MS, HPLC, digestion Cell biosnesor Accuracy comparable with standard Might give false positive results for Geng, Zhang, and
environmental pollutants method and Dry ashing conventional methods but with fast some reagents Guo (2012)
on fish response time at low cost
167

38. Determine cadmium and Fish meat Atomic absorption Transgenic Zebrafish biosensor In field testing, quick results and As the biosensor is based on DNA Pawar et al. (2016)
zinc toxicity spectrophtometry (AAS), highly sensitive hybridisation principle, the sensor
Digestion methods can not quantitatively detect the
heavy metals with high specificity
39. Detection of steroid Fish ELISA test Electrochemical Rapid, real time, label free, and Stability studies not reported and Haiyun et al. (2015)
hormone concentrations in immunobiosensor convenient presently it takes ∼15 min for one
fish sample

Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178

M. Kundu, et al. Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178

Table 2
List of biomarkers used for early diagnosis, detection and staging of some of the deadly disease in agriculture.
Agricultural Problem/Disease Biomarker Biosensing Technique References

Soybean rust Fungal spores Electrochemical immunosensor Mendes et al. (2009)

Bacterial wilt in tomato
Karnal Bunt (Tilletia Indica) (a quarantined disease
of wheat)
Biotic and Abiotic stress detection in plants
Pathogens in food and water (Salmonella
typhimurium, and the Escherichia coli strains
JM109 and DH5-α
Mastitis diseases in dairy animals (Staphylococcus
aureus, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus uberis)
Determine subclinical ketosis diagnosis
Detect occurrence of metabolic diseases in animals
Determine foot and mouth diseases (FMD)
Determine stress in fish
Bacterial DNA
Teliosporic antigen
Sap electrolyte concentration,
jasmonic acid (JA) concentrations
Bacterial cells
Milk, serum, plasma of infected
animal
Milk, serum, plasma of infected
animal
Serum samples
Antigen, 3D gene of FMD virus
Glucose concentration, L-lactic
acid levels, cortisol levels
Accoustic biosensor(quartz crystal
microbalance)
Surface plasmone resonance (SPR) biosensor
Optical, electrochemical and fluorescence
biosensors
Electronic biosensor
Amperometric, potentiometric, piezoelectric
quartz crystal microbalance, magnetic
biosensor
Microfluidic sensor for β-Hydroxybutyrate
Electrochemical biosensor
Optical biosensor, nano PCR based biosensor
Electrochemical biosensor, immunosensor
Papadakis, Skandalis, Dimopoulou,
Glynos, and Gizeli (2015)
Singh, Gupta, Gupta, Singh, and
Kumar (2013)
(Coppede et al., 2017; Larrieu et al.,
2015)
Ali et al. (2018)
(Duarte et al., 2016; Juronen, 2018;
Simplicio et al., 2017)
Weng et al. (2015)
Neethirajan (2017)
(Bhatta et al., 2012; Hamdy et al.,
2018)
(Hibi, Hatanaka, Takase, Ren, & Endo,
2012; Wu et al., 2015; Wu et al.,
2017)

coupled sensors each of them playing their individual roles. The bio-
sensor has advantages of rapid and on farm detection as compared to
other existing methods, shelf life studies for stability of biosensor needs
to be explored.
8. Biosensors for aquaculture
Fish and seafood are the important part of healthy diet and good
source of protein worldwide. Fish consists of fat, amino acids and water
which make it susceptible to spoilage due to microorganisms after post
mortem. Fish and seafood are very perishable and can only be stored
fresh in ice for 8–14 days, depending on the species (Hicks, 2016). But
the production levels of aquaculture have increased over the time, thus
making it crucial to develop efficient storage and processing methods
and technologies to enhance the shelf life of fish and seafood to reduce
the post-harvest losses. Biosensors are now widely used for various
problems of fisheries sector. Aquaculture includes rearing aquatic ani-
mals such as fish and cultivation of aquatic plants. In production and
rearing of aquatic animals, real time monitoring and control of pro-
cesses is traditionally done by fishermen. Such practices are very time
consuming, laborious and require skilled people. Only a specific com-
munity of people engaged in such activities since decades can manage
the job. In coming future, any type of job could be handled by any
unskilled person also just with only few guidelines. The contribution
goes to novel and smart technologies that make work easier and faster.
In earlier discussions, on pollution of water bodies by heavy metals, the
role of biosensors has been found as crucial one. These effluents from
various establishments are released into the nearby water bodies due to
which there are heavy metals such as zinc, lead and cadmium in water.
From water these toxic metals and other pollutants enter into the body
of aquatic flora and fauna. This way these toxicants enter into the food
chain and hence human body. Before feeding upon aquatic food there is
need to check its quality. The process of quality check occurs at dif-
ferent levels. But the ultimate check point is where a consumer buys it.
Thus the technology of quality assessment should be rapid, objective,
accurate and sensitive to ultimately provide contentment to the con-
sumer or the end user.
Biosensors already developed for such applications can be used for
aquaculture also. In recent studies, a transgenic zebra fish biosensor has
been developed as a first level screening tool for water toxicity (Pawar,
Gireesh-Babu, Sivasubbu, & Chaudhari, 2016). Besides the detection of
toxic substances, the fish density, water quality, gaseous concentrations
and water exchange frequency, that influence the production and
health of fish, can also be suitable determined by transduction based
biosensors. Since the seafood is perishable and susceptible to microbial
growth, it should be stored and transported only in defined conditions
of temperature and humidity. But in most of the cases due to lack of
cold chain supply and to earn easy profits, retailers and wholesalers try
to cheat consumers through insertion of false quality indicators in
seafood. There are several studies conducted to reveal the extension
and severity of malpractice prevailing in this agriculture sector. Many
cases of seafood poisoning and deaths are reported every year due to
post-mortem spoilage (Hicks, 2016). There are many banned artificial
preservatives (such as formaldehyde) and ripening agents (such as
calcium carbide) that are illegally being used in excess quantities by
vendors to cut off the cost of cold storages at the risk of lethal effects to
consumers’ health. The presence of these chemicals can only be ex-
amined in laboratories only by a team of expert technical persons.
Rather, it should be tested in real-time and on the spot for the health
concern of consumer. Here comes the role of biosensor to resolve these
issues rapidly.
Since a biosensor works on the principle of use of biomolecules for
transformation of a small change in mass, light, heat, pH etc to an
electrical signal, it is quite suitable to be used for living and non-living
tissues in seafood. In a recent work, an electrochemical biosensor has
been developed to determine formalin content in fish and develop a
suitable device to be commercialised in market for the consumers. The
biosensor detection of formalin is found to be comparable with HPLC,
digital image analysis and spectroscopy, the already existing methods
(Noor Aini et al., 2016). There are various other attributes also of
seafood quality. Biosensors have been developed to determine freshness
based on measuring the changes in some specific indicator attribute of
quality. Histamine is one of such indicator that arises in fresh fish with
the onset of spoilage just after post mortem due to improper storage
conditions and handling. A graphene based amperometric biosensor has
been developed that has good stability, precision and showed high
correlation with the standard methods (Apetrei & Apetrei, 2016).
Xanthine, another indicator of fish and meat spoilage has been de-
termined quantitatively using electrochemical bio sensing technique
using bio nanocomposites and found to be reliable parameter for
freshness determination (Dervisevic et al., 2017). Now-a-days even the
gender and species of an animal can also be determined using biosensor
technique. In a most recent study a highly sensitive DNA biosensor
based on electrochemical transduction technique has been developed to

168
M. Kundu, et al.
determine the gender of fish making feasible the automation in aqua-
culture for gender based screening. The developed biosensor has im-
mense utility for controlling and monitoring the various gender specific
life processes in research (Esmaeili et al., 2017). Since consumption of
spoiled seafood can lead to various allergies, diseases and many a times
even death.
Fish allergy even in trace quantity is found to be one of the most
common food allergies in world. The population that is sensitive to fish
allergy is increasing drastically over the time with the mass consump-
tion of fish all over the world. A major fish allergen parvalbumin has
been detected by a mast-cell-based fluorescence biosensor with good
reproducibility and fast response. Biosensor so developed specifically
quantifies parvalbumin and predicts fish allergy in the human popula-
tion (Jiang et al., 2014). For fish farmers rearing fishes in ponds and
other water bodies it is necessary to continuously monitor and control
the health of fishes to obtain good productivity. To reduce fish mor-
tality and enhance productivity, the physiological conditions such as
stress level of the cultured fish must be monitored. Stress condition of a
fish might induce changes in fish causing release of some biochemical
indicators such as glucose concentrations. Although stress arising in
fishes can be perceived from behavioural interactions, such as attacking
behaviour and visual irritation, but the accurate and precise qualitative
and quantitative measurement of the causative agent is possible with
the help of a suitable biosensor only. Studies conducted using glucose
oxidase to determine increased glucose concentrations in fish blood due
to stress imposed upon revealed that biosensing technology is rapid and
sensitive well suited for on-site applications even in harsh climatic
conditions (Wu et al., 2015). Thus the aquaculture sector which is al-
ready flourishing after the blue revolution will move to new heights
after incorporating the implications of latest technologies such as mi-
croelectronics, nanoscience and biosensors.
Additionally there are some physical factors such as climate, soil
and topography that significantly influence agriculture productivity.
With increasing trend of genetic engineering, transgenic crops are now
in use in agriculture. Inspite of socio-economic benefits of genetically
modified (GM) crops, they pose environmental and food safety threats.
Thus labelling of GM derived foods is necessary requirement for trade
regulations. The focus of biosensors development has been directed
towards this arising inhomogeneity in agriculture. A team of re-
searchers have developed an optical biosensor using fabricated thin film
chip for the identification of seven GM canola lines (L. Bai et al., 2012)).
Now-a-days biosensors have advanced to a level that might help to
select climate resilient plant species and animal breeds via quick as-
sessment of influences of environmental factors and animal genotypes
at different life stages (Neethirajan, Tuteja, Huang, & Kelton, 2017).
With day to day changes occurring in climate and global warming has
already alarmed the advancement of pathogenic activities and resultant
unlisted challenging conditions for survival of animals. Time has come
to select robust and best fitted breeds of animals that will easily adapt
to the forthcoming climate changes. Biosensor can help us to select
climate resilient animal breeds that will survive even under various
stresses induced thereafter.
9. The impact of nanotechnology on development of agricultural
biosensors
Conventionally agriculture is directed to produce the food by cul-
tivation of various crops and management of livestock. The constantly
increasing population is posing global challenges to achieving the goal
of food for all. All the milestone stages from farm to fork need to be
looked upon for filling the existing gaps in agriculture. In future due to
tremendously increasing population the demand for crop yield will
increase more. As the natural agricultural inputs such as land, water
and soil are finite; the need for precision technological inputs with
minimal use of agricultural chemicals will be on rise for sustainable
agricultural production. In above discussions the role of biosensors has
169
Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
been evidently spread over the vast arena of agriculture. Undoubtedly,
biosensors have revolutionised the precision agriculture along with the
other precision technologies. Since, the characteristics of biosensors
such as specificity, sensitivity, shelf life, and response time needs to be
further improved, most of the research studies are now dedicated in this
direction.
With the upcoming of nanoscience and its related fields, various
novel nanomaterials can now be synthesized very easily. These nano-
materials and their composites can serve as channel to form the suitable
matrix and develop a biosensor for specific applications with improved
features. Since, nanotechnology is study of materials, process and
phenomenon at nanometre scale and further exploration of matter for
new applications in technical and societal challenges, conversion of
macro material to nanoparticles causes generation of new character-
istics of materials and as a result of which the material behaves dif-
ferently. This difference in particular characteristic is suitably detected
using nanobiosensors with enhanced sensitivity, accuracy, specificity
and life as compared to conventional biosensors. In the coming decades
the convergence among nanotechnology, agriculture engineering, and
plant science will lead the path towards food security, sustainability,
precision agriculture, automation, robotic farming and cost effective
technologies. This innovation in technology has important con-
sequences in agriculture. Various novel nanotechnological tools and
techniques such as nanocapsulated insecticides spray for plants
(Khoobdel, Ahsaei, & Farzaneh, 2017), nanoparticles of nutrients and
supplements for root growth promotion and activation of gene ex-
pression (Syu, Hung, Chen, & Chuang, 2014), nanofilms of edible
coatings for packaging raw and processed food (Ribeiro, 2014), nano-
fibres for developing durable antimicrobial active food packaging (Saini
et al., 2016), will in future play significant role in revolutions in food
and agriculture industry. Developments in material and chemical sci-
ence have further led to innovations in biosensor applications due to
enhanced sensitivity and shelf life. To meet the diagnostic and analysis
requirements of agriculture sector using biosensors, numerous varieties
of nanomaterials having unique shapes, structures, and dimensions can
be engineered now. There are generally four different types of nano-
materials that are produced for different applications. These are carbon
based (carbon nanotubes (CNTs), fullerenes, graphenes, nanodiamonds,
carbon dots etc.), metal based nanomaterials (quantum dots, nanogold,
nanosilver and metal oxides), dendrimers (polymer based nanomater-
ials) and nanocomposites (combining nanoparticles of one type with
other nanoparticles) (Bhatia, 2016). Among these carbon based nano-
materials, metal oxides and nanocomposites are frequently used in
applications such as biomedicine, drug delivery, tissue engineering
biosensing, etc.
Biosensors based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), quantum dots (QDs),
graphenes, gold (Au), silver (Ag), silica, nanocomposites and modified
nanostructures with large surface to volume ratio has been synthesized
in order to improve electrochemical parameters. Due to good electrical
conductivity and ample functional groups present on surface area
carbon nanotubes have been used to develop biosensors for detection of
foodborne pathogenic bacteria (staphylococcus aureus) in fresh beef
(Abdalhai et al., 2014). Diagnosis of plant diseases and food borne
diseases are very important fields, enriched and contributed by nano-
technology. Nanoparticles with ultra small particles can better interact
with microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses and hence provides a
potential solution to related pathogenic agriculture problems (Ruttkay-
Nedecky, Krystofova, Nejdl, & Adam, 2017). Thus need to further re-
duce the size of nanoaparticles have been realised. Such size controlled
nanoparticles are now frequently used in various fields.
With further reduction in size, the properties of nanoparticles get
changed. Nanoparticle size reduction up to ∼10 nm produces fluor-
escent quantum dots with novel properties arising due to quantum
confinement effect, surface defects and edge roughness. Recently, a
biosensor based on quantum dots and gold nanoparticles with fluores-
cence resonance energy transfer mechanism have been developed and
M. Kundu, et al.
applied effectively for fast detection of lysozyme (LYZ) (Fu et al., 2017).
Nanoparticles of different materials possess different characteristic
properties. In biosensing studies, to synthesize any specific nanoma-
terial with desired properties for target application, concept of nano-
composite has been introduced. A nanocomposite incorporates a na-
nomaterial in to another standard nanomaterial matrix. In agriculture
the samples are in a very rough and open environment under the in-
fluence of various natural interferents. In this regard nanocomposite
based matrix provides better transduction with improved current re-
sponse in biosensors. Nanocomposites involving a suitable combination
of nanoparticles have successfully enhanced the storage stability and
sensitivity of agricultural biosensors. In addition, nanocomposites with
desired properties generally provide high mechanical strength, re-
sistance to corrosion, high electrical and thermal conduction and long
shelf life.
A highly reproducible and stable biosensor based on chitosan-TiO2-
graphene nanocomposite has been developed recently for detection of
organophosphate pesticides in cabbage. The porosity of the nano-
composite provides additional stability to the biosensor via efficient
enzyme immobilization (Cui et al., 2018). Due to nanocomposite for-
mation, there is sudden improvement in various properties including
mechanical strength, optical properties, thermal and electrical proper-
ties. Since the discovery of single layered nanomaterials, multilayered
(2D and 3D) nanostructures are now gaining more attention due to their
novel physical and chemical properties. These materials generally have
large surface areas, good chemical stability, high mechanical strength
and electrical conductivity. Among all carbon based nanomaterials
graphene and its derivatives have tremendous potential to be used as
material for biosensor in future. Among the recent researches on gra-
phene based biosensors, a nanocomposite of graphene oxide and gold
nanocomposites (GO/AuNCs) has led to ultrasensitive detection of
aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in peanut samples (Z. Li, Xue, Ma, Cheng, & Miao,
2018). The improvement in sensitivity of the biosensor is due to better
quenching ability of nanocomposite. Moreover low detection limit with
wide linear range leads to better reliability and wider applicability of
such biosensors.
Among the recent researches in nanomaterial science, morphologi-
cally modified nanostructures of nanomaterials such as nanosheets,
nanoflakes, nanoflowers etc. are synthesized and used for fabrication of
biosensors as they provide better chemical stability, biocompatibility
and high surface area to volume ratio. In a research study for si-
multaneous detection of mercury (Hg2+) and silver (Ag+) ions in
drinking water, serum and cell lysate, tungsten disulfide-nanosheets
(WS2) based biosensing platform has been developed. The study has
implications in environmental monitoring and diagnosis (Zuo et al.,
2016). Thus a suitable combination of nanomaterials with electro-
chemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electro-
chemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is gaining popularity for pa-
thogen detection in biomedical sector as well as in agriculture. In an
effort to ensure food safety, Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 has been
detected using synthesized attractive 3D architecture of silver (Ag)
nanoparticles as nanoflowers as the interface material for electro-
chemical biosensing (Huang et al., 2016). Bovine serum albumin (BSA)
has been used as stabilizing agent for proper conjugation of Ag nano-
flowers.
Frequently reoccurring diseases are considered as one of the major
factors limiting the crop productivity. Out of these, that are caused by
virus found to be the most devastating and difficult to control, as it
require a control of the diseases by the vectors. Once it starts showing
its’ symptoms, even pesticide application would not be of much use.
Thus early prediction of the occurrence is the only prevention to era-
dicate diseases at the root. Even if the pathogens have just attacked, the
presence of the same should be detected before the visual symptoms
appear. While there are vast applications of biosensors in this area at
each stage, the nanobiosensor diagnosis will further increase the speed
of detection and as well as the efficiency too due to enhancement of
170
Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
active surface area.
In order to develop nanobiosensing devices, various nanobiosensing
elements such as nanosurfaces, nanomaterials etc are needed.
Depending on the exclusive properties of nanomaterials an equipment
of increased sensitivity can be developed, that further is highly sensitive
for the environmental changes. To detect presence of bacteria or any
chemical substance, biosensor can be developed for more such
screening applications based on nanosurfaces or nanoparticles with
fluorescent properties and further excite an electrical or chemical signal
in response to the trace amounts to be detected (Kahveci et al., 2016).
Nanoscale devices with distinctive properties are good enough to make
agricultural systems “smart”. Such devices can diagnose plant health
issues before these actually get visible to the farmer. For better assim-
ilation of the nutrients in our body, nanomaterials can be introduced in
food itself. Nanocapsules are now being developed for effective delivery
of various agricultural chemicals such as herbicides in order to enhance
their specific efficiency and effectiveness by slow and controlled release
in the environment and get triggered by the presence of the target
(Khoobdel et al., 2017).
The encapsulated nanoparticles for spray of pesticides; by controlled
release of pesticide in an insect's stomach as part of precision farming,
minimizes the contamination of plants themselves. The most remark-
able application of nanobiosensors will be to assess the nutrient and
water needs of the plants even before the visible symptoms appear for
the farmers. Nanobiosensors can now be seen as the “smart eye” for
keeping watch over the soil conditions and continuously ongoing
physiological processes during plant growth and development.
Nanobiosensors can be integrated into packaging material film to
monitor and evaluate the quality of food. Such biosensors have the
property of producing colour change when find the suitable element of
reaction. Based on the colour produced the shelf life and spoilage of
food can be easily predicted. The small size and compactness of nano-
material based biosensors is an added advantage for their applications
in chemical and biological analysis (Steinborn et al., 2017). In a bio-
sensor based device the concept that a large dosage of preservative or
agricultural chemical in the sample will produce a strong or intense
signal as compared to very low concentrations makes the foundation
laying principle for development of such gadgets and instruments in
future.
The focus should be laid upon development of technologies fitting
well with the precision farming has with a goal to increase crop yields
though minimising use of agriculture chemical inputs. Nanosensor
network can be scattered in the crop field so that the wide scale vast
data on crop growth and soil conditions can be collected and commu-
nicated automatically in real time to a remote unit for further analysis.
The whole field under the monitoring of such nanostructure sensors will
work like a smart field system. The farmer can keep a watch on the real
time data on fluctuations in environmental conditions and the de-
pending soil and microclimatic conditions affecting the crop. With the
advancement in present day electronics, integrated circuits have be-
come quite common in every arena of life. Nanobiosensors have been
now fabricated with an integrated version consisting of a power source,
sensing unit, detector and display unit on a single piece of material or
chip (Kuswandi et al., 2011; Sassolas et al., 2012). In recent years role
of smart phone in agricultural applications is not hidden to anybody.
Irrigation systems, decision support systems, precision farm manage-
ment and many more routine practices are now assisted with smart
portable phone having high quality camera, good storage memory, and
fast analysis software. In the same line, researchers have coupled smart
phone with biosensor to provide a multifunctional sensing platform to
users for rapid detection of Salmonella Enteritidis in milk, cheese and
water. The developed platform allows infield study via optical detection
using Horseradish Peroxidase (HRP) enzyme as signal amplification
molecule (Zeinhom et al., 2018). Many such important analytes and
biosensors developed for the quantitative evaluation in this regard have
been listed in Table 3. Besides this, the application of smart phone
 M. Kundu, et al.
Table 3
List of important analytes in agri-food sector with intervention of specific biosensors.
Analyte Sample Conventional Method Type of Biosensor Sensitivity/Limit of Detection/Shelf Electrode/Matrix Reproducibility References
Life/Response Time

Heavy metals Mercury, Cadmium Water HPLC, optical emission Transgenic Zebrafish Limit of detection (LOD): 0.1 ppm for Transgenic Zebrafish (Danio rerio) – Pawar et al.
and Copper spectroscopy, Atomic biosensor mercury and 0.5 ppm for cadmium (2016)
Absorption and copper
Spectro-photometry, Atomic
absorption
spectrophtometry (AAS),
Digestion methods
Cadmium Milk Atomic absorption Whole cell biosensor LOD: 1.0 μg/L Carbon paste electrode Relative standard Verma, Kaur,
spectrophtometry (AAS) and Storage stability: 65 days deviation and Kumar
inductively coupled plasma (RSD) < 2% (2011)
mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)
Arsenic Water Atomic fluorescence Electrochemical Sensitivity: 4.91 μA ppb−1 Fe3O4-RTIL composite modified Recovery: Gao, Yu, Xiong,
spectrometry, atomic biosensor LOD: 8 × 10−4 ppb electrode 95.7%–103.6% Liu, and Huang
absorption spectroscopy, (2013)
and inductively coupled
plasma mass spectrometry
Lead Milk Atomic absorption Colorimetric and LOD: 38.6 μm Nylon membrane RSD: 111–119% Kaur et al.
spectrophotometery (AAS), potentiometric Storage stability: more than two (2014)
inductively coupled plasma biosensor months
mass spectrometry (ICP-
MS), and differential pulse
cathodic stripping
voltametry (DPCSV)
Lead and Mercury Water Atomic absorption Amperometric Sensitivity: 89.2 × 10−3 μA μM−1 (for Pt/CeO2/urease electrode – Gumpu,
171

spectroscopy (AAS), ion biosensor Pb2+ ions) and Krishnan, and

chromatography, 94.1 × 10−3 μA μM−1(for Hg2+ ions) Rayappan
chemiluminescence and LOD: 0.019 ± 0.001 μM and (2017)
inductively coupled plasma 0.018 ± 0.003 for Pb2+ and Hg2+
mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) ions respecively
Storage stability: 20 days
Response time < 1 s
Drug residue Diclofenac Bovine Milk Liquid or gas Optical biosensor LOD: 0.112 μg L−1 RIfS transducers(m D263-glass 96–112% Rau, Hilbig, and
(Antibiotics) chromatography combined substrate with a layer of 10 nm Gauglitz (2014)
with mass spectrometry, Ta2O5 and 330 nm SiO2 on top)
capillary electrophoresis,
Sulfadimidine Water and HIgh-performance liquid Immunosensor LOD: 0.06 μg/L BK7 glass has been used as planar 80%–107% Liu, Zhou, Xu,
dairy peoducts chromatography (HPLC), Storage stability: 300 test cycles waveguide chip Song, and Shi

Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178

gas chromatography and (2014)
liquid chromatography-mass
spectrometry
Kanamycin Animal Enzyme-Linked Amperometric LOD: 5.74 pg/mL Graphene sheet(GS)-nafion(Nf)/ 99.4–106% Wei et al. (2012)
derived foods Immunosorbent Assay immunosensor thionine(TH)/Pt nanoparticles RSD: 1.85–4.03%
(ELISA), Liquid modified electrode
Chromatography-Mass
Spectrometry (LC-MS)
Penicilin G milk HPLC, gas chromatography Electrochemical LOD: 0.079 μmoL/L Modified carbon paste with β- 101 ± 8% do Prado,
and liquid chromatography- biosensor LOQ: 0.026 μmoL/L lactamase RSD < 5% Foguel,
mass spectrometry Goncalves, and
Maria del Pilar
(2015)
Pesticide residues Organophosphate Vegetables Gas chromatography (GC) Conductometric Sensitivity: 28.04 μS/ppm Screen-printed carbon electrode – Mulyasuryani
pesticides and High Performance Biosensor LOD: 0.18 ppm and Dofir (2014)
Response time: 45 s
(continued on next page)
 M. Kundu, et al.
Table 3 (continued)

Analyte Sample Conventional Method Type of Biosensor Sensitivity/Limit of Detection/Shelf Electrode/Matrix Reproducibility References
Life/Response Time

Liquid Chromatography
(HPLC)
Paraoxon and Fruits (apple) Gas chromatography, high Electrochemical LOD: 4.30 × 10−12 mol L−1 for ESM/QDs/ChOx/AChE Recovery: Xue et al. (2016)
Parathion performance liquid biosensor paraoxon and 2.47 × 10−12 mol L−1 98.4%–114.4%
chromatography (HPLC), for parathion RSD < 2%
gas chromatography-mass Shelf life: Two months
spectrometry (GC-MS), and
liquid chromatography-mass
spectrometry (LC-MS)
Paraoxon and Fruits HPLC,GC-MS,LC-MS Photoelectrochemical LOD: 6.055 × 10−14 M for paraoxon Nanocomposite of CdSe@ZnS Recovery: Li, Zheng, Liu,
Dichlorvos biosensor and 2.5 × 10−12 M for dichlorvos. quantum dots (QDs) and graphene 93.6 ± 12.1% to Zhao, and Liu
Storage stability: six months 103.3 ± 12.8% (2015)
RSD < 15%
Carbamate fruit and HPLC,GC-MS,LC-MS Electrochemical LOD: 1.4 and 0.95 μmol/L, GC/MWCNT/PANI/AChE Reproducibility: Cesarino,
vegetables biosensor respectively for carbaryl and 2.6% and Moraes, Lanza,
(cabbage, methomyl repeatability: 3.2% and Machado
broccoli and Storage stability: two months (2012)
apple samples)
Pirimicarb tomato and HPLC,GC-MS,LC-MS Electrochemical LOD: 1.8 × 10−7 mol L−1 Multi-walled carbon nanotubes Recoveries ranging Oliveira et al.
lettuce biosensor paste electrode from 91.0 ± 0.1% (2013)
samples to 101.0 ± 0.3%
RSD < 5%
Pathogens Bacteria fresh beef Polymerase chain reaction Electrochemical DNA LOD: 1.23 ng/mL GCE modified with (multiwalled Standard Abdalhai et al.
(Staphylococcus (PCR) and enzyme linked Genomic Biosensor carbon deviations < 2% (2014)
aureus) immune-sorbent assay nanotubes−chitosan−bismuth)
172

(ELISA)
Bacteria (P. Arabidopsis PCR and ELISA Electrochemical Sensitivity of electrochemical assay: Screen printed carbon electrode RSD: 10.7% Lau et al. (2017)
Syringae) plants (A. biosensor 214 pM Specificity test
Thaliana) obtain no signal with
Botrytis cinerea and
Fusarium oxysporum
f.sp. conglutinans
Methyl salicylate (a Soybean plants HPLC, GC-MS, LC-MS, ELISA Amperometric Sensitivity (by cyclic Alcohol oxidase and horseradish RSD: 91%–122%. Fang,
key marker of plant biosensor voltammetry):112.37 μA cm−2 m M−1 peroxidase enzymes on to carbon Umasankar, and
fungal disease) and by constant potential nanotube electrode Ramasamy
amperometry is (2016)
282.82 μA cm−2 m M−1

Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178

LOD (cyclic voltammetrye): 22.95 μM
and from constant potential
amperometry is
0.98 μM
Storage stabiltiy: seven days
Grapevine virus A- Grapevine ELISA and real time Optical biosensor Sensitivity: 1 pg/mL to 10 ng/mL ZnO-based electrodes – Tereshchenko
type (GVA) proteins polymerase chain reaction et al. (2017)
(GVA-antigens) (RT-PCR)
Salmonella Milk, cheese PCR and ELISA Optical immunosensor LOD: 1.0 CFU mL−1 (water and milk) Conjugation of Magnetic bead and Recovery: 95.4 to Zeinhom et al.
and water and 1.0 CFU/g (cheese) HRP−Ab2−inorganic nanoflower 98.2 (in milk), 94.3 (2018)
to 99.5 (in cheese)
and 95.8 to 101.2 (in
water)
M. Kundu, et al.
Fig. 3. Some commercially available biosensors for agricultural applications.
assisted biosensing is especially useful in electrochemistry, optical and
communication systems and ultimately in agriculture to develop por-
table, low cost real time sensing devices. When integrated with in-
tegrated chips, test strips, and electrochemical systems, the design of
biosensor becomes simple and costs get reduced. Although present
challenges in smart phone technology include reducing optical com-
ponents, improving computation speed to eventually improve image
features and developing microfabricated biosensors.
There are some commercialised food sensors targeted to determine
specific chemical such as pesticides, acids, antibiotics, preservatives etc
as shown in Fig. 3. The highly sensitive sensors use a small bit of food to
analyse and produce the results rapidly and accurately. One such food
biosensor is Penguin food sensor developed by Biosensor Laboratories,
Korea. It is a one unit system that is equipped for performing quality
attributes testing. It has a cartridge strip on which a small drop of food
is squeezed as an input. Then the cartridge is inserted inside the main
unit called Penguin and the results are produced on the liquid crystal
display (LCD) display as processed by the configured software. The
device is useful for preliminary adulteration testing in baby foods,
restaurants, school canteens, industries and food processing units.
These portable instruments are biomarkers of fruits, vegetables, packed
and processed food and other food items.
Apart from usage of biosensors for evaluation of food quality, food
safety and ultimately health status can be well predicted in advance.
One such biosensor “Path SMART” has been developed to detect and
quantify the food and air borne pathogens. Without any well trained
skilled technical staff and laboratory pathogens such as E. coli,
Salmonella & Listeria can be quantified at an early stage than any other
method. Such technology can be further upgraded to include agri-
culture field applications for detection of plant pathogens. Biosensors
are now-a-days being developed for detecting the plant stress indicators
also. For that various indicative signals such as increase in sucrose
content (Soldatkin et al., 2013), change in concentration of nutrients
(Chiou & Lin, 2011; Raul, Irineo, Gerardo, & Miguel, 2016) and hor-
mones (Larrieu et al., 2015) etc. can be used to further transform these
173
Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
in to visual indication through biosensing technology of processing
signals (Chiou & Lin, 2011; Chong et al., 2007). Very few biosensors
have been developed for dairy animals, fish and seafood. Fish and
seafood are the vastly consumed foods. Thus quality check of meat and
poultry products is a major concern today. As these food items are
perishable foods and get spoiled if not stored properly and suffers a
poor transportation. “Bio Fish 700″and “Bio Fish 300” fish sensor from
BioLan, Bizkia Technology Park, is a device developed for evaluating
the quality of fish and seafood. This biosensor determines the con-
centrations of key indicators of spoilage of seafood such as sulphite and
histamine. The limitation of these available sensors is that a single
biosensor is required to assess a single component or ingredient of food.
This will enhance the cost, as many a times it is required that an in-
tegrated system provides results for number of components or para-
meters being assessed. Otherwise a person will carry a number of de-
vices for study of different parameters in a single sample.
These available commercial biosensor devices have been targeted
for specific application and the scope of developing such small sized
portable and handy biosensor devices can be made feasible only with
the assimilation of nanomaterial science and nanotechnology in de-
velopment of agricultural biosensors. The advantages, application area
and scope of improvement in some of the commercially available bio-
sensors are presented in Table 4. The advantage using such handy,
portable and smart systems is increased life, ruggedness and reduced
cost of analysis. Thus emphasis should be laid upon researches directed
towards improvements in sensitivity and shelf life of fabricated bio-
sensors. More such advanced biosensors will come in near future as day
to day research is bringing out novel materials, methods and techni-
ques.
10. Challenges and future prospects
In the future, advancements in biosensor technology will involve
embedded systems, large range of analytes, microfluidics, more em-
phasis on whole cell and tissue biosensors, telecommunication

Table 4
Some commercially available biosensors for specific agricultural applications.
Device Underlying Technology
GRYPHSENS Electrochemical nanobiosensor
Penguin Lab-On-Chip based
electrochemical biosensor
PathSmart Printed flexible plastic
microchip based biosensor
174
BioFish 300 Screen printed electrodes and
amperometric transduction
based enzymatic biosensor
ACREO Integrated electrochemical
transduction and printed
electronics based biosensor
Senzytec Enzymatic biosensor
Spreeta Surface plasmon resonance
biosensor
Company and Country of
Origin
Guelph's Bionano Lab.,
Canada
BioSensor Laboratories,
Seoul, Korea
Sensor-Kinesis Corp.Los
Angeles, US
BioLan, Bizkia Technology
Park, Spain
RISE Acreo, sweden
Tectronik S.r.l. in
collaboration with
Universities of Padua and
Venice (Italy)
Texas Instruments Inc., USA
Target Application
Monitoring of bovine metabolic
disease (via non-esterified fatty acid
(NEFA) and beta-hydroxybutyrate
(BHBA))
Antibiotics, pesticides, acidity,
salinity and glucose concentrations in
food
Quantifies the food and air pathogens
Determine seafood and fish freshness
by sensing histamine and sulphite
levels
Sensing gluose, other sensor analytes
and mechanisms, including
enzymatic or affinity with
microfluidics
Analyse ethanol,malic Acid,
D-lactic Acid,
L-lactic Acid glucose, fructose in agro-
food
Diagnostics, food/beverage quality
and safety in agriculture
Advantages
Minimal sample requirement,
real time assessment and easy
to use
Easy to operate, point of care
testing, disposable cartridge
Portable, detection of
pathogens at lower levels than
ELISA &PCR techiques, fast
analysis
Highly specific, sensitive and
fast as compared to other
existing biochemical methods
Analysis with high-speed
processes, to a low cost,
versatile and adaptable to
specific user needs
Fast, on-site inexpensive, user-
friendly and require no trained
personnel for operation
Using Spreeta kit, easy to set
up and operate, broad
applicability
Limitations
The developed biosensor system is
useful and affordable for large scale
dairies and operations
Suitable for meat and dairy food
only
Detects only E. Coli, Salmonella &
Listeria monocytogenes.
Separate systems for histamine and
sulphite quantification in fish and
seafood.
The system is complex and lacks
ruggedness
The biosensor system require
sample preparation and data
management is done with the help
of a PC
It is just a laboratory based
evaluation module and needs
further developments for field-
portable instruments
M. Kundu, et al.
Remarks
The device is most useful as part of routine
screening in the dairies
The device will have more commercialised
value for the consumers when include the
horticultural produce (fruits & vegetables) and
cereal food (flour, bread etc.)
It has scope to be upgraded for inclusion of
many more lethal pathogens causing losses to
agriculture produce
A Portable unit incorporating quantification of
both the indicators of freshness will reduce the
cost and space occupied by the instrument.
Shelf life and maintenance is crucial factors
affecting long term usability of the system
The device require a little bench space. It can
be upgraded to hand held unit for easier
application in field
Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
The developed system is ideally useful as
research and teaching tool in university and
laboratories
M. Kundu, et al.
capability, and wearable facility. The time is not too far away when the
farmers and end-users will be able to use real time on-the-spot tests in
fields, home, industries and markets for quality and safety assessments
even on their smart phones and other portable smart devices. Although
sensors are available in the market for few specific applications, but this
is meagre to resolve huge pile of existing and ever rising problems in
agriculture. There is still a lot of scope for improvement in limit of
detection, sensitivity, specificity, electrode design, matrix fabrication
and costs and feasibility to be used in field.
Although, nanomaterials have been found to be the most suitable
matrices for biosensor fabrication as compared to conventional ma-
trices, these are generally found to be suffering from many problems
due to which their commercialisation is still a great challenge. Since
biosensors can be used as off line, on-line or in vivo device in agri-
culture. As sample matrix is a complex medium and has many chemi-
cals, biosensors are subject to interference from these chemicals.
Interference is especially problematic in agricultural samples due to
electrochemical perturbations produced by molecule metabolites, pro-
teins, macromolecules and cells in animal as well as plant derived
samples (Noor Aini et al., 2016). Various naturally occurring complex
biochemical reactions in these samples can modify the chemical com-
position of samples further influencing the biosensor performance via
affecting the activities of biomolecules. In order to reduce effects due to
interferents, sample pretreatment is one of the approaches that are
usually followed. Processes such as extraction, pre-concentration, fil-
tration and derivatization are helpful in improving the reliability and
sensitivity of the biosensors. But most of the applications in agriculture
demand usage of biosensors directly in field. In agricultural samples
there are chemicals that may cause biofouling and passivation (Xiang
et al., 2018). Biofouling is a major problem in implantable biosensors
although selecting an optimized operating voltage can reduce it. Shelf
life and operational stability both are crucial in biosensor development
and depends mainly upon biomolecule stability. In most of the cases,
denaturation and deactivation of protein molecules cause reduced shelf
life of biosensor. Immobilization, deposition technique and cross
linking mechanisms all contribute to operational stability of biosensors.
Thus there is urgent need to design strategies for improving analytical
performance of biosensors in agricultural samples to transform them
into viable products. These challenges need to be addressed in concern
to design and application of biosensors. Different enzyme stabilizers,
novel nanostructures, nanocomposites and immobilization techniques
have contributed towards improving sensitivity, selectivity, response
time and stability. The factors such as type of the buffer, pH, avail-
ability of ions and relative concentrations of stabilisers and biomolecule
play essential role in determining stability of biosensor. Immobilization
techniques such as covalent bonding via suitable crosslinkers have been
successful in significantly improving the shelf life of biosensors. Other
techniques involving polymeric films such as nafion are very common
in agricultural biosensors (Wei et al., 2012). The biomolecule im-
mobilization is very important factor affecting life and robustness of
biosensor. Generally, biomolecules in dry state are found to be more
stable as compared to those in soluble solutions form, and show better
stability after immobilization. Biomolecule stabilization can be effec-
tively achieved by using a combination of different methods.
All the undergoing research and development in biosensors is in-
terdisciplinary and the advances in mechanical and electronic en-
gineering will be an added advantage for broadening the scope of ap-
plication of biosensors in agriculture. Robotics is one of the wonderful
engineering invention and important component of precision and au-
tomation systems in agriculture. Biosensors and robotics both are newly
emerging areas in science and technology. Biosensors are now widely
acceptable for quantitative and qualitative analysis. In future devices
will be available that non-destructively sense the intrinsic quality at-
tributes of agricultural produce and instantly provide user friendly re-
sults for further decisions. It is only feasible with the biosensors that the
people sitting in a hotel or restaurant will quickly know about calorie
175
Trends in Food Science & Technology 88 (2019) 157–178
content, fat, the nutrients and other ingredients of food being served to
them with a pocket biosensor device. At commercial production or
processing sites, for multi analyte detection different specific biosensors
can be attached as robotic arms in a single system itself for continuous
and online monitoring of the processes. This will be readily acceptable
instrument in food processing industries involved in large scale pro-
duction and packaging of processed food after ensuring due quality
standards. In field, the biosensor-robot will be quite apt for testing
applications such as, intact fruit maturity, soil health condition, micro
environment, climacteric parameters, crop health, pathogens, biotic
and abiotic stresses.
The blowing wind of robotic automation in each and every field of
science and technology have influenced agriculture sector also. These
robots designed and developed specifically for the purpose of agri-
cultural applications are called as agrobots. There are numerous ap-
plications in agriculture, environment structures, control and mon-
itoring where robots have routed the labour intensive tasks to smart and
efficient task with technology and knowledge intensification. Since
steering towards the one ultimate goal of sustainable development,
ensuring healthy and hygienic food for all, from farm to fork, biosensors
and robotics with suitable integration will lead to development of
consumer friendly, long lasting and cost effective gadgets and devices.
Robotic arms are now being used along with the farm machineries and
instruments in harvesting, loading and unloading, sorting and grading,
picking and dropping, canning, inline quality evaluation and many
more such labour intensive agricultural and food processing sector.
Robots are designed to be multitasking systems to accomplish a task
within a stipulated time period with efficiency and perfection as com-
pared manual job. The main components of an agrobots are radio fre-
quency (RF) transmitter, RF receiver, microcontroller, power supply,
motion controllers and motor drivers. Biosensor units consisting of
analyte, matrix, transducer, and display results can be integrated with
agrobots at mechanical and software levels both.
The large scale food processing industries, export units, wholesalers
and commercial sites will be the appropriate places to install such
systems for easy and rapid quality assessment and task management.
Other revolution in biosensors can be achieved through implementation
of microfluidic technology with added advantages of throughput pro-
cessing, reduced sample and reagent volume, enhanced sensitivity of
detection and common platform for both sampling and detection. The
microfluidic based biosensors are now progressing with versatile pro-
mising future applications for portability, disposability and real time
detection of analytes in the field. The advancements in fabricating
microchannels and various miniaturizations techniques are adding
stepping stones to the pathway but there is still a long way to go for
point-of-care diagnostics testing. Micro and nanofluidic biosensors
realisations as a robust potential real time tool will be the solution to
long waiting list of problems in agriculture. The technological devel-
opment of biosensors need collaboration of multidisciplinary subject
expertise from different academia and industry. Thus this can only be
realised through cumulative sincere efforts dedicated towards bringing
a “biosensor revolution” in agriculture sector.
11. Conclusion
This review underlines the significant developments in the adapta-
tion of biosensors in various fields of agriculture. It provides an insight
into the existing problem areas in agriculture, role of biosensors and
their potential implications, their limitations and scope for further
improvements. The biosensors have a huge market due to wider per-
spectives for crops, raw and processed food, environment monitoring
and quality control system. The advancements in micro-fabrication
technology, material science and nanoengineering have an enormous
and profitable impact in the agricultural biosensor market. In current
scenario, the biosensors for the simultaneous detection of various toxins
in the processed food to standardize quantitative measurements in
M. Kundu, et al.
healthcare and agri-food industry should be essentially inexpensive and
field portable. The use of modified nanostructures as the matrix mate-
rial and suitable biomolecule immobilization technique will sig-
nificantly improve the characteristic features of biosensors. Besides this,
the efforts have also been made to review on the recent developments
in the area of application of biosensors for the animal husbandry and
livestock management in agriculture. Like human beings livestock
sector is prone to attack of diseases, infections, contaminations, dis-
orders and malnutrition. Although, various problems in aquaculture,
poultry and dairy animals have been identified and biosensor inter-
ventions in these areas have been extensively studied, the further re-
search in area of enzymatic biosensors and non-enzymatic biosensors,
whole cell based biosensors, DNA biosensors and aptamer based bio-
sensor will certainly be helpful for unlocking opportunities and com-
bating the further challenges for wider scale acceptability. Popularity of
implantable biosensors for point of care devices and adaptation of in-
tegrated circuit (IC) technology in transduction can play pivotal role in
further progress and commercialisation of this technology. The hin-
drances in the technology acceptance in market need to be investigated
in terms of linkages with risks and regulations for societal impact.
Constraints and difficulties in the way of technological adoption and
dissemination need to be addressed sincerely through research and
development institutions and organisations. In future, in agriculture
there will not be any sector untouched by the role of biosensors.
Biosensors will emerge as most influential technology in modern pre-
cision agriculture to assist decision support systems for forecasting the
calamities and assessing the losses smartly and rapidly, ensuring sus-
tainable agriculture with enhanced crop productivity.
Acknowledgements
We thank Director, CSIR-NPL, New Delhi, India for providing the
facilities and AcSIR for providing opportunity to do doctorate. We
sincerely thank Dr. V.N.Ojha, Sh. Manoj Kumar Pandey and Ms. Hema
Bhardwaj, for interesting discussions. The sponsorship support received
from ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi,
India is highly acknowledged.
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