Recent Advances in Electrochemical Sensing Strategies for Food Allergen Detection

Food allergy has been indicated as the most frequent adverse reaction to food ingredientsover the past few years. Since the only way to avoid the occurrence of allergic phenomena is to eliminateallergenic foods, it is essential to have complete and accurate information on the components offoodstuff. In this framework, it is mandatory and crucial to provide fast, cost-effective, affordable,and reliable analysis methods for the screening of specific allergen content in food products. Thisreview reports the research advancements concerning food allergen detection, involving electrochemicalbiosensors. It focuses on the sensing strategies evidencing different types of recognitionelements such as antibodies, nucleic acids, and cells, among others, the nanomaterial role, the severalelectrochemical techniques involved and last, but not least, the ad hoc electrodic surface modificationapproaches. Moreover, a selection of the most recent electrochemical sensors for allergen detection arereported and critically analyzed in terms of the sensors' analytical performances. Finally, advantages,limitations, and potentialities for practical applications of electrochemical biosensors for allergensare discussed.