Rapid Assessment of Meat Freshness by the Differential Sensing of Organic Sulfides Emitted during Spoilage

In this work, we report the fabrication of a two-memberfluorescencesensor array that enables the assessment of three stages (fresh, slightly spoiled, andmoderately or severely spoiled) of meat spoilage. Thefirst member of the array,which has strong chalcogen bonding and sulfur-pi interactions with organic sulfides,exhibits very high sensitivity, while the second member of the array, which has weakchalcogen bonding and sulfur-pi interactions with organic sulfides, exhibits lowersensitivity. On the basis of the combinedfluorescence responses of the two members,three stages of meat spoilage, including fresh, slightly spoiled, and moderately orseverely spoiled, can be monitored. Notably, using the volatiles collected from 5 g ofmeat products over a short period of time (1 min), this two-member sensor arrayachieves sensitive responses to the organic sulfides emitted from the meats. Thecapacity of this method to rapidly assess meat freshness facilitates its practicalapplication, as illustrated by the monitoring of the freshness of chicken and porkproducts in the real world