RAPID METHODS AND BIOSENSORS FOR FOOD QUALITY, FOOD SAFETY AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL APPLICATIONS

The overall objective of this project is to develop practical rapid methods and biosensors for food and agricultural applications. To achieve this objective, we propose to address the following questions:What are the metabolite biomarkers that would allow rapid identification of food borne pathogens and plant pathogens?To what extent can enzymes be stabilized using high hydrostatic pressure in combination with covalent immobilization to produce practical enzyme biosensors?What is the relationship between redox reactions at inert electrodes and antioxidant capacity as determined by common assays.The specific objectives for this project are:Objective 1. To identify chemical or biochemical biomarkers of Salmonella serovars Typhimorium, Enteriditis, Newport, Heidelberg, Meunchen, Hartford, and Javiana grown in nonselective media, selective media and minimal media enriched with selected nutrients, selected food borne pathogens in suspensions and biofilms through metabolomic profiling.Objective 2. To produce stable amperometric enzyme biosensors by combining chemical modification, and multipoint covalent attachment at high hydrostatic pressure.Objective 3. To correlate electrochemical characteristics of (redox reactions) of selected antioxidants to common antioxidant assays.