Assessing food degradation and microbial growth by sensor read-out with fluorescence spectroscopy

Both the waste of edible food and the consumption of non-edible food within the best before date are ongoing concerns in food industry. Until now, no methods are applied to access food quality of packed food without opening of packages. We demonstrate the formulation of a sensor foil comprising of a non-toxic porphyrin on an inorganic matrix in polyethylene. The sensor foil is capable of detecting amines in the gas phase over food products, which could act as spoilage indicators during the shelf life of packaged food. The foil was optimized to prevent reactions with other analytes in the gas phase of food by the alteration of the hydrophobic polymer. We performed experiments, using model packing units, to monitor the behavior of the foil and correlated the change in the fluorescence spectra to the total viable count of bacteria on the fish. The readout of the foils was performed with fluorescence spectroscopy to yield highly accurate results in contrast to less accurate the colorimetric determination.