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Article

A Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Thermal Sensor for the Selective Detection of Melamine in Milk Samples

1
Sensor Engineering Department, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
2
School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Foods 2022, 11(18), 2906; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11182906
Submission received: 28 July 2022 / Revised: 6 September 2022 / Accepted: 15 September 2022 / Published: 19 September 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Detection Techniques for Contaminants in Food Science)

Abstract

In recent years, melamine-sensing technologies have increasingly gained attention, mainly due to the misuse of the molecule as an adulterant in milk and other foods. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are ideal candidates for the recognition of melamine in real-life samples. The prepared MIP particles were incorporated into a thermally conductive layer via micro-contact deposition and its response towards melamine was analyzed using the heat-transfer method (HTM). The sensor displayed an excellent selectivity when analyzing the thermal response to other chemicals commonly found in foods, and its applicability in food safety was demonstrated after evaluation in untreated milk samples, demonstrating a limit of detection of 6.02 μM. As the EU/US melamine legal limit in milk of 2.5 mg/kg falls within the linear range of the sensor, it can offer an innovative solution for routine screening of milk samples in order to detect adulteration with melamine. The results shown in this work thus demonstrate the great potential of a low-cost thermal platform for the detection of food adulteration in complex matrices.
Keywords: melamine; molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs); milk; heat-transfer method (HTM); food adulteration testing; low-cost melamine detection melamine; molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs); milk; heat-transfer method (HTM); food adulteration testing; low-cost melamine detection

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MDPI and ACS Style

Caldara, M.; Lowdon, J.W.; Royakkers, J.; Peeters, M.; Cleij, T.J.; Diliën, H.; Eersels, K.; van Grinsven, B. A Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Thermal Sensor for the Selective Detection of Melamine in Milk Samples. Foods 2022, 11, 2906. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11182906

AMA Style

Caldara M, Lowdon JW, Royakkers J, Peeters M, Cleij TJ, Diliën H, Eersels K, van Grinsven B. A Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Thermal Sensor for the Selective Detection of Melamine in Milk Samples. Foods. 2022; 11(18):2906. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11182906

Chicago/Turabian Style

Caldara, Manlio, Joseph W. Lowdon, Jeroen Royakkers, Marloes Peeters, Thomas J. Cleij, Hanne Diliën, Kasper Eersels, and Bart van Grinsven. 2022. "A Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Thermal Sensor for the Selective Detection of Melamine in Milk Samples" Foods 11, no. 18: 2906. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11182906

APA Style

Caldara, M., Lowdon, J. W., Royakkers, J., Peeters, M., Cleij, T. J., Diliën, H., Eersels, K., & van Grinsven, B. (2022). A Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Thermal Sensor for the Selective Detection of Melamine in Milk Samples. Foods, 11(18), 2906. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11182906

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