SERS-active nanostructures for food microorganisms and toxins biosensing: compositional tailoring, structural regulation, and signal amplification

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has gained prominence as an effective technique for identifying pathogens and toxins in food products. This is attributed to its remarkable sensitivity, swift detection speed, and precise identification capacity. This paper reviews the latest developments in the field of SERS-based biosensors for food safety, highlighting the design of SERS-active nanomaterials and their role in sensing a wide range of foodborne microorganisms and microbial toxins. We discuss the synthesis methods for single-component and multi-component nanomaterials, strategies for structural regulation of SERS-active materials, and the unique advantages of SERS in detecting pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, Escherichia coli, etc. and related toxins. Additionally, we highlight the integration of SERS with artificial intelligence (AI) for enhanced detection efficiency and accuracy. The combination of advanced nanomaterials and SERS technology has shown great potential in improving the effectiveness and precision of food safety testing, with broad application prospects in complex food matrices.