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Project acronym:   MiMoSenSa

Project type:   PROMIS

Grant agreement No.:   HF-243

Project is funded by:   Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia (Belgrade, Serbia)

Instituions where the research is conducted:

  • University of Belgrade - Faculty of Chemistry (Belgrade, Serbia) – Beneficiary
  • Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy (Belgrade, Serbia) – Coordination
  • Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences (Belgrade, Serbia) – Beneficiary

Project realization is scheduled from January 1, 2024 till December 31, 2025.

Project staff

Principal investigator:   Vesna D. Stanković, Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy (Beograd, Serbia)

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Short description of the project

As the human population continues to grow, the demand for food is increasing. This puts pressure on the food industry to improve yield production while maintaining the quality of the food. The use of chemical additives is a common practice in food production, which raises concerns about food safety. Contaminants such as pesticides, environmental pollutants, veterinary drug residue, natural toxins, and pathogens pose a significant risk to human health, even in small amounts. Food contaminants such as pesticides, environmental pollutants, veterinary drug residue, natural toxins, and pathogens pose a significant risk to human health - even in small amounts. According to the World Health Organization, over 600,000 people become ill each year due to consuming unsafe food, with 420,000 of those cases leading to death. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor and control food safety hazards, particularly chemical ones. This project aims to develop portable, economical and easy-to-use electrochemical sensors for detecting some of the widespread chemical food contaminants (pesticides, veterinary drugs, mycotoxins) to assess the safety of food that finally reaches the consumer. The MiMoSenSa project brings a novel, multidisciplinary approach to food safety control exploiting the carefully designed electrochemical sensors using the excellent recognition ability of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIP) associated with the multifunctional properties of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). We propose sensors development through: 1) synthetic studies for MOFs, based on rare earth elements as metal ions, 2) synthetic studies for MIP supported by detailed computational descriptions for MIP-analyte interactions for every selected pollutant 3) improving sensor performance by modifying electrodes with MIP@MOF composite; 4) detection of analytes in real samples with future application for commercial tests in food safety monitoring.