Point-of-Care Testing of Chloramphenicol in Food Production Using Smartphone-Based Electrochemical Detector

Antibiotic abuse in food processing could threaten human health via either direct pathogen or drug-resistant infection. To curb this situation, it is of vital significance to identify trace level of antibiotics in foodstuff in a point-of-care inspection manner. Here, a smartphone-based electrochemical system was developed for the quantitation of chloramphenicol (CAP). The differential pulse voltammetric reduction of CAP was measured facilely on a piece of gold-deposited screen-printed electrode, which was docked onto a palm-sized detector with remote directives from a mobile APP of Bluetooth handshaking and digital display. Under optimal conditions, the target CAP could be determined in a range from 1 nmol/L to 5 μmol/L with a detection limit of 0.25 nmol/L. Further tests on emulate samples demonstrated the miniaturized device could handle the food-screening scenarios with accuracy, convenience and quick response.