Low-Cost Electrochemical Determination of Acrylamide in Processed Food Using a Hemoglobin – Iron Magnetic Nanoparticle – Chitosan Modified Carbon Paste Electrode

Abstract

Acrylamide is a neurotoxin that is potentially carcinogenic to animals. In processed food, it is a side product of the Maillard reaction that is primarily formed when a carbohydrate-reach food is fried or baked. In this work, a sensitive and low-cost biosensor was prepared on a simple carbon paste electrode. Hemoglobin was initially fixed on a hybrid nanocomposite composed of iron magnetic nanoparticles with a layer of chitosan. The nanocomposite/hemoglobin was mixed with carbon paste to produce a biosensor. The device presented repeatability for both measurement and construction, with relative errors of 4.14% and 4.68%, respectively. The calibration curve presented linearity (R² equal to 0.9945) for acrylamide concentrations ranging from 10 to 171 nmol L⁻¹. The limits of detection was 0.06  nmol L⁻¹, respectively, with analytical recoveries from 90.83% to 103.64%. The device was successfully used for the analysis of French fries . These results show that a simple and sensitive device was constructed, which is suitable to monitor the levels of acrylamide in food.

Keywords:

• Acrylamide
• biosensor
• cyclic voltammetry (CV)
• electrochemistry
• hemoglobin
• nanocomposite
• potato

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001-scholarship PROSUC (Camargo, J.S.). Part of the equipment used in this work was acquired by a grant from Fapesp (2013/20570-6).