Development of PDA-Based Sensor for the Detection of Biogenic Amine

Spoiled meat is a major concern for both consumers and food industries due to the presence of toxic biogenic amines (BAs). Excessive consumption of BAs can lead to certain symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, and palpitations. Distinguishing fresh meat from spoiled meat without specialized tools is challenging, as spoilage signs are hard to detect. Herein, we developed a real-time and naked-eye visible sensor for detecting BAs in meat packages. The sensor was designed to be a thin film containing polydiacetylene (PDA), a highly sensitive chemical to BAs exposure which exhibits a strong color change from blue to red, enabling the detection simplicity and the sensing platform selection flexibility. The fabrication of our PDA-based sensor is also simple the shelf is more than 3 months, and the red color signal resulting from the binding of PDA and standard BAs at room temperature can be observed by the naked eye within one minute of exposure to meat containing tryptamine and phenylethylamine. The detection limits for tryptamine and phenylethylamine, as observed by the naked eye, were 0.5 and 1.0 mg/mL, respectively. These demonstrated that our sensor is suitable for large-scale production and has rapid BAs detectability. Our findings revealed a potential of our developed PDA-based sensor for self and rapid BAs detection in spoiled meat which undoubtedly be beneficial for manufacturers and consumers in the future. To enhance the reliability and efficiency of polydiacetylene (PDA)-based sensor production, further optimization efforts must focus on validation methodologies for accuracy assessment, and designing portable packaging.