A preventative approach to food safety is the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point), which attempts to avoid the entering of unwanted substances into the food chain. Food regulatory agencies have established control programs for the food industry. They can also accumulate in food during storage, form in the food by interaction of chemical compounds, or may be concentrated from the natural food components.

Contaminants may enter the food chain during various stages of production. The assessment of food safety is one key area for the modern food industry. The food industry implements quality and management systems that include increased testing to verify performance in order to give adequate answers to the consumers about both concepts with the main purpose of boosting wellbeing and preventing future diseases. Innovation and development in the food industry basically relies on the concepts of food safety and quality. This review discusses some critical examples of the latest advances in this area, pointing out relevant methodologies related to the measurement techniques, including the use of nanostructured electrodes and strategies for signal amplification. Therefore, electrochemical immunosensors and DNA-based biosensors have been widely used to determine major and minor components in foodstuffs, providing sufficient data to evaluate food freshness, the quality of raw materials, or the origin of samples, as well as to determine a variety of compounds at trace levels related to food safety such as micotoxins, allergens, drugs residues or pathogen microorganisms. Among these, the strategies involving affinity interactions have been shown to possess a large number of applications. In addition, other types of different electrochemical biosensing approaches have emerged strongly in the last years. Important examples of enzyme electrochemical biosensors are those dedicated to the determination of glucose, alcohol or cholesterol are important examples.

This is in a large part due to the relevant results obtained by combining the attractive advantages of electrochemical transduction strategies (in terms of relatively simple hardware, versatility, interface with automatic logging and feasibility of application outside the laboratory environment) with those from biosensors technology.

At present, the implementation of electrochemical methods in the food is evident. Electroanalytical chemistry has, for decades, played a relevant role in food safety and quality assessment, taking more and more significance over time in the solution of analytical problems. Indeed, such methods require high sensitivity, selectivity, ability for rapid implementation and capability of automatic screening. Since the food chain is becoming more and more complex, powerful analytical methods are required to verify the performance of food safety and quality systems. Safety and quality are key issues of today’s food industry.

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