Biosensoristic Devices: Monitoring and Diagnostics in Agro-Zootechnical Productions

The emerging environmental policies increasingly adopted globally are generally aimed at promoting the development of new methodologies, eco-friendly products/processes (green chemistry) and eco-sustainable agro-zootechnical production. Nowadays, however, anthropogenic pollution still remains an emergency and the continuous release of xenobiotics and agro-zootechincal residues into the "environment to food" chain makes the development of monitoring systems crucial. In fact, systems enabling the detection of contaminants in environmental compartments (in situ), in continuum and with real time outputs, represent the chance to target quickly corrective actions. The legislation regulating food safety in Europe includes the adoption of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system "from farm to fork" and recommends primary producers to apply self-monitoring plans (1). The HACCP system aims at early identification of hazards by setting corrective procedures and maintaining the history at any point in the food cycle production: in this frame, sensoristic devices (sensors and biosensors) offer the required characteristics either in terms of analytical performance (e.g. detection limit) and capacity of providing real-time results, in situ detection, absence or reduced pretreatment and use of reagents, easy use, cost-effectiveness. In particular, integrated bio/chemo-sensoristic systems can be effective for monitoring particularly vulnerable points of the environment to food chain. In fact, through the "holistic-like" approach based on their specific and non-specific endpoints, they can support the assessment of situations subjected to multiple stimuli, where synergistic or additives effects, are impossible to assess altogether by conventional methods. The patented multichannel platform BEST (2) is a technology combining batteries of bio/chemosensor probes, automatic integration of responses and identification of grids of markers. Through simultaneous collection and analyses of multiple signals, BEST allows a nonstop monitoring for the identification of anomalous variations of the multiparametric "fingerprint" in an environmental compartment or during agro-zootechnical productions.