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Updated: Feb 24, 2026
Foodborne Pathogen Screening Using Magneto-fluorescent Nanosensor: Rapid Detection of E. Coli O157:H7
Published on: September 17, 2017
A portable smart-phone device for rapid and sensitive detection of E. coli O157:H7 in Yoghurt and Egg
Mohamed Maarouf Ali Zeinhom1, Yijia Wang2, Yang Song3
1School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA; Food Hygiene Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62512, Egypt.
Abstract:
The detection of E. coli O157:H7 in foods has held the attention of many researchers because of the seriousness attributed to this pathogen. In this study, we present a simple, sensitive, rapid and portable smartphone based fluorescence device for E. coli O157:H7 detection. This field-portable fluorescent imager on the smartphone involves a compact laser-diode-based photosource, a long-pass (LP) thin-film interference filter and a high-quality insert lenses. The design of the device provided a low noise to background imaging system. Based on a sandwich ELISA and the specific recognition of antibody to E. coli O157:H7, the sensitive detection of E. coli O157:H7 were realized both in standard samples and real matrix in yoghurt and egg on our device. The detection limit are 1 CFU/mL and 10 CFU/mL correspondingly. Recovery percentages of spiked yogurt and egg samples with 103, 104 and 105 CFU/mL E. coli O157:H7 were 106.98, 96.52 and 102.65 (in yogurt) and 107.37, 105.64 and 93.84 (in egg) samples using our device, respectively. Most importantly, the entire process could be quickly completed within two hours. This smartphone based device provides a simple, rapid, sensitive detection platform for fluorescent imaging which applied in pathogen detection for food safety monitoring.
