[101]. During transportation and storage, the food is densely packed, often still moist
and not cooled, which is why microorganisms grow and produce toxins (see Fig. 10).
Thus, food control upon arrival at the factory as well as before the delivery to the
consumer is essential. Especially small manufacturers have a high demand in
compact devices with easy handling for rapid on-site detection. Beside ELISAs
and microarrays, biosensors are an alternative for rapid detection of contaminants.
An important step in food control is the extraction of the analytes from the food
matrix which might be reduced in biosensor setups by the use of stable and
biocompatible recognition elements, such as aptamers. In this chapter, we will
review the advances in aptamer-based impedimetric biosensors for the detection of
mycotoxins and microorganisms in food.
Fig. 9 Overview of the applications of aptasensors in gray biotechnology
Fig. 10 Role of food control in white biotechnology – it is essential to control food before
processing at the factory – methods for fast detection in situ are desired, as e.g. biosensors
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