MEMS for Food Safety and Food Security

Dear Colleagues,

The food and agricultural industries face two major challenges in the coming decades: (i) providing sufficient food for the growing world population that is expected to reach ~10 billion in 2050; and (ii) ensuring the safety of food products for consumers and preventing the frequent occurrence of outbreaks which cost the food industry and health system hundreds of billions of dollars every year. The advancement in MEMS and nanotechnology, and the development of new materials have shown promise in the past two decades for the development of sensing systems for the detection of chemicals and biological agents at extremely low concentrations. While the majority of the development efforts have been focused on medical and environmental applications, some researchers have exploited the technology for food and agriculture. The use of rapid, accurate, and inexpensive detection methods deployed to the food chain from farm to consumers’ homes can control and minimize the spread of the contamination and drastically reduce food waste, which could currently feed over 150 million people in the United States alone. Physical sensors have the potential to be used in agricultural processes such as irrigation and fertilization to improve their efficiency and minimize the environmental effects.

This Special Issue of Sensors focuses on contributions that address food safety and security. Research work on the detection of pathogens and toxins in food, monitoring the quality of packaged food in real-time, and measuring the effectiveness of agricultural and food processes are highly encouraged for submission. The development of systems used for monitoring physical and chemical parameters in food processing steps such as temperature, moisture, and pH are also welcome. The development of new materials, fabrication processes, and measurement methods to address any of the above-mentioned subjects will also be considered for publication in this Special Issue.

Dr. Mohammad K. Shavezipur
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Food safety
• Food security
• Biosensing
• Pathogen detection
• Chemical sensing
• Microfluidic systems
• MEMS for food processes
• MEMS for agricultural processes
• Physical sensing in food processes