Recent advances in meat freshness “magnifier”: fluorescence sensing

AbstractTo address the serious waste of meat resources and food safety problems caused by the decrease in meat freshness due to the action of microorganisms and enzymes, a low-cost, time-saving and high-efficiency freshness monitoring method is urgently needed. Fluorescence sensing could act as a “magnifier” for meat freshness monitoring due to its ability to sense characteristic signal produced by meat spoilage. Here, the magnification mechanism of meat freshness via sensing the water activity, adenosine triphosphate, hydrogen ion, total volatile basic nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, bioamines was comprehensively analyzed. The existing “magnifier” forms including paper chips, films, labels, arrays, probes, and hydrogels as well as the application in livestock, poultry and aquatic meat freshness monitoring were reviewed. Future research directions involving innovation of principles, visualization and quantification capabilities for various meats freshness were provided. By critically evaluating the potential and limitations, efficient and reliable meat freshness monitoring strategies wish to be developed for the post-epidemic era.Keywords: Meat safetyfreshness monitoringfluorescence sensingmechanism Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Authors' contributionsJinsong Zhao: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Writing-original draft, Visualization, Formal analysis. Writing-review & editing. Yongsheng Ni: Conceptualization, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Writing-review & editing. Lijun Tan: Investigation, Resources. Wendi Zhang: Supervision. Hui Zhou: Investigation. Baocai Xu: Supervision, Methodology, Resources.Additional informationFundingThis study was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFD2100602), Hefei University of Technology Talent Introduction Initiation Fund (Grant No. 13020-03712022048), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. JZ2023HGTA0174).