Rapid, simultaneous detection of mycotoxins with smartphone recognition-based immune microspheres

Abstract

How to achieve simultaneous and rapid detection of various mycotoxins in food has important practical significance in the field of food processing and safety. In this paper, a smartphone immunoassay system based on hydrogel microspheres has been constructed to quickly detect two mycotoxins at the same time. The rapid detection system was reflected in the following three processes: (1) rapid separation of free matter after direct competition reaction based on hydrogel solid-phase carrier particles; (2) rapid detection process based on efficient catalytic function of enzymes; (3) fast capture and analysis of images based on smartphone software. Ochratoxin A (OTA) and zearalenone (ZEN) are secondary toxic metabolites of fungi that can contaminate a wide range of foods and feeds. OTA and ZEN were used as detection model molecules to verify the feasibility of the intelligent rapid detection system. The entire detection process was within 30 min, and the results were analyzed in only 10 s. Detection limits of mycotoxins OTA and ZEN are 0.7711 ng L⁻¹ and 1.0391 ng L⁻¹. The recoveries of both mycotoxins ranged from 76.72 to 122.05%. This study provides a universal rapid detection method for on-site application of large-scale food security testing. Graphical abstract Schematic diagram of the construction of the smartphone detection system: The system is divided into three parts: detection, image capture and analysis, and result.