FOOD Safety monitoring by Electrochemical Lateral Flow Immunoassay

Project Information

FOODSELFI

Grant agreement ID: 739658

DOI

10.3030/739658

Project closed

EC signature date 20 February 2017

Start date 1 September 2017

End date 31 August 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 90 988,75

EU contribution

€ 90 988,75

Coordinated by

BIOLAN MICROBIOSENSORES SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FOODSELFI (FOOD Safety monitoring by Electrochemical Lateral Flow Immunoassay)

Reporting period: 2017-09-01 to 2018-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Food safety and quality is a worldwide concern, it is one of the most regulated areas in the world, mainly in the developed markets and obviously, affects every country that imports and/or exports food. The international food safety community is demanding new technological advances in rapid, quantitative and on-site monitoring for the most relevant analytes (pathogens, allergens, etc) set by international standards on food safety. They should be developed at affordable costs for the food industry, with the additional health and economic benefits for the society.

BIOLAN, a European SME leader in the field of biosensors for the food industry, aims to disrupt the market with the commercialization of rapid, low cost, disposable and quantitative one-step inmunobiosensors based on the Electrochemical Lateral Flow Immunoassay (ELFI) analytical technology.

In FOODSELFI, BIOLAN combined traditional qualitative lateral flow technology with quantitative electrochemical detection. This was conducted through the mass producible ELFI concept formulation: screen printed electrodes in the same paper material substrate of the lateral flow immunoassay.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During FOODSELFI, the main specifications for the development of an electrochemical lateral flow immunoassay (ELFI) have been defined. They include materials, processes and manufacturing conditions needed to produce a working ELFI prototype. In addition, the design of the scale-up manufacturing process has also been defined, including electrode screen printing, antibody and reagent deposition.
The FOODSELFI prototype combined screen printed electrodes and hydrophobic barriers on paper based substrates in order to produce a platform capable of in-situ immunological reactions and electrochemical detection. The prototype was developed using a typical antibody model (interleukin-6) and was capable of determining 0 - 20 µg mL-1 per antibody molecule (n = 3).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

STATE OF THE ART -vs- FOODSELFI Progress
1) Plastic/semi-paper analytical platforms - Paper analytical platforms
2) Qualitative or semiquantitative paper-based lateral flow immunoassay - Fully paper-based quantitative immunoassays
3) Caffeine-quantification in beverages is time consuming (hours) and requires expensive laboratory equipment/skilled personnel. Official method is based on chromatographic methods with spectrophotometric detection - In situ detection, user-friendly solution

Schematic representation of the paper analytical platform