photonic system for Adaptable muLtiple-analyte monitoring of fOod-quality

h-ALO aims to develop and demonstrate in real-setting a new photonic-based sensor which will allow local food producers and retailers to control food quality and safety, therefore increasing competitiveness in the whole food production value chain.

The sensor will provide:• Unprecedented high sensitivity, low limit-of-detection and large dynamic range compared to previously developed portable systems through the combination of an analyte pre-concentration and a multi-modal detection scheme;• Miniaturization and integration of optoelectronic and plasmonic components allowing portability in optical detection;• Multiplex-analyte recognition, allowing the unprecedented detection of both microbiological and chemical contaminants such as pesticides/antiparasitic, heavy metals, micro-organisms;• Easy and fast sample preparation protocols which are adaptable for a wide range of food samples;• Measurement automation and fast response, making the sensor reliable for on-site use by farmers, retailers and non-expert operators;• Mobile-phone connectivity and cloud-based data management allowing a distributed, anonymous food monitoring along the farm-to-fork chain.The innovative technologies at the basis of the h-ALO sensor are:i) highly integrated organic/hybrid photonic components as light-source and photodetector;ii) nanoplasmonic biofunctionalized surface assessing innovative multimodal optical transduction;iii) innovative aptamer- and immunoassay-based bio-recognition elements for multiplexing; iv) a smart microsieve membrane for analyte pre-concentration.The h-ALO prototype will be validated in lab by quantitative comparison with benchmark commercially available methods and demonstrated on-site in small selected agri-food chains such as aquaponics, craft beer, raw milk and organic honey, and introduced into an HACCP manual.