Trends on Vibrational Spectroscopy Tools for Health and Food Safety Control

There is an increasing need to establish reliable safety controls in the food industry and protect public health. Consequently, there are numerous efforts to develop sensitive, robust and selective analytical strategies. As regulatory requirements for food and the concentration or target bi-omarkers in clinical analysis evolve, the food and health sectors are showing a growing interest in developing non-destructive, rapid, on-site and environmentally safe methodologies. One alternative that meets the conditions is non-destructive spectroscopic sensors, such as those based on vibrational spectroscopy (Raman, surface-enhanced Raman — SERS, mid- and near-infrared spectroscopy, and hyperspectral imaging built on those techniques). The use of vibrational spectroscopy in food safety and health applications is expanding rapidly, moving beyond the laboratory bench to include on-the-go and in-line deployment. The dominant trends are: (1) the min-iaturization and portability of instruments; (2) surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and nanostructured substrates for the detection of trace contaminants; (3) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) and deep learning for the spatially screening of quality and contamination; (4) the stronger in-tegration of chemometrics and machine learning for robust classification and quantification; (5) growing attention to calibration transfer, validation, and regulatory readiness. These advances will bring together a variety of tools to create a real-time decision-making system that will address the issue in question. This article review aims to highlight trends in vibrational spectroscopy tools for health and food safety control, with a particular focus on handheld and miniaturised instruments.