Abstract
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•Recent advances and limitations in Poly(amino acids) based bio(sensing) were discussed.•The analytical figures of merit of the developed methods are also evaluated.•Current improvements on the monitoring of food contamination using poly(amino acids) based bio(sensors) were investigated.
Nowadays, our societies are entangled with numerous problems more and more. One of them is food safety, which has a direct relationship with public health. Indeed, food contaminations have been categorized as some important groups including bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, toxins, pesticides, food colorants and so forth. Over the last two decades, several researchers have attempted to develop sensing approaches for these contaminations. On the other hand, conventional techniques suffer from expansivity, sensitivity and selectivity. Therefore, the advancement of technology introduces a novel analytical method called bio(sensors) which provides a multi-domain sensing platform. Elaborately, the presence of different nanomaterials such as carbon-based, silica-based and metallic-based nanomaterials has revolutionized in terms of improving the properties of these analytical approaches. More importantly, poly(amino acids) as biocomposites have attracted considerable attention over the last few years. In addition, the integration of these biocomposites with nanomaterials brings about a brilliant probe for the detection of food contaminations. In this regard, in this review, we summarized recent advances in bio(sensors) based on poly(amino acids) for quantification of various food contaminations, and alongside that, the pros and cons of electrochemical and optical bio(sensor) as two major types of these analytical methods discussed.