Organic-phase enzyme biosensor for moisture determination in food products

Abstract

A novel biosensing scheme for measuring the moisture content of food products is described. The strategy relies on a recently developed organic-phase water biosensor, involving the stimulation by water of the biocatalytic activity of the immobilized tyrosinase in the presence of catechol substrate. The dynamic properties of the water detector were exploited for rapid and reproducible flow injection assays of food products, such as butter, margarine and lyophilized products. The moisture contents found, correlate well with the values obtained by standard official methods. Such a development should facilitate rapid quality control testing in the food industry