Bottom-Up Absorptive and Stretchable Plasmonic Tape for Field-Deployable In Vivo Fruit Safety Surveillance.

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Materials Science
• Food Science

Background:

• Current food safety surveillance methods struggle with in vivo analysis on fresh produce.
• Existing flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates are often destructive or not suitable for direct application on wet surfaces.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel analytical tool for in vivo food safety surveillance on fresh produce.
• To create a SERS-active substrate that conforms to wet surfaces and enables quantitative, multiplexed detection.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of absorptive ultrathin plasmonic tape-SERS-active functional elastomeric (SAFE) tape.
• Application of SAFE tape to wet produce surfaces for analyte absorption and transport to plasmonic hotspots.
• Quantitative in vivo SERS measurements and predictive modeling for analyte quantification.

Main Results:

• SAFE tape conforms to wet surfaces and absorbs analytes within seconds.
• Achieved detection limits of 1 nM for pesticides and 1 μM for plant hormones.
• Demonstrated high signal uniformity, mechanical durability, long-term stability, and accurate quantification of mixtures.
• Enabled early detection of *Penicillium* spp. and real-time monitoring of pesticide degradation.

Conclusions:

• SAFE tape provides a low-cost, field-deployable platform for in vivo food safety monitoring.
• The technology facilitates quantitative, multiplexed SERS readouts without substrate inversion.
• Offers significant advancements for real-time surveillance of produce safety and quality.