Portable sensing methods based on carbon dots for food analysis

Food analysis is significantly important in monitoring food quality and safety for human health. Traditional methods for food detection mainly rely on benchtop instruments and require a certain amount of analysis time, which promotes the development of portable sensors. Portable sensing methods own many advantages over traditional techniques such as flexibility and accessibility in diverse environments, real-time monitoring, cost-effectiveness, and rapid deployment. This review focuses on the portable approaches based on carbon dots (CDs) for food analysis. CDs are zero-dimensional carbon-based material with a size of less than 10 nm. In the manner of sensing, CDs exhibit rich functional groups, low biotoxicity, good biocompatibility, and excellent optical properties. Furthermore, there are many methods for the synthesis of CDs using various precursor materials. The incorporation of CDs into food science and engineering for enhancing food safety control and risk assessment shows promising prospects.