Functionalized Inorganic Nanoparticles for the Detection of Food and Waterborne Bacterial Pathogens

Infections acquired from ingesting contaminated food and water poses an adverse effect on public health and safety, thus affecting nations’ economy. Technical approaches developed over years have contributed adequately to microbial detection in food and water, yet, unveiling spaces for more improvement on early and rapid detection of pathogens. This review highlights different strategy assessing bio-functionalized inorganic nanoparticles towards the detection of pathogens in food and water samples. Conjugates of several bio-receptors and inorganic nanoparticles showed rapid, real-time, repeatability, and appreciable limit of detection in targeted pathogens. A patent referenced in this study established the biocompatibility of bio-functionalized inorganic nanoparticles mechanism. Unique attributes exhibited by bio-functionalized inorganic nanoparticles showed potential and improvement of the existing bio-sensing pathogen detection methods. Each of the identified strategies described showed a promising pathway accommodating the development of simple, and even the fabrication of low-cost materials for easy detection of bacterial pathogens in food and water products.