New insights into the detection of food additives in foodstuffs: the use of pulse voltammetry techniques

Abstract

Food additives are intentionally chemical compounds added during foodstuff production to control technological functions, such as pH, viscosity, stability (color, flavor, taste, and odor), homogeneity, and loss of nutritional value. These compounds are fundamental to inhibition the degradation process and prolonging the shelf life of foodstuffs. However, inadequately employed or exceeded consumption can result in adverse effects on consumers' health due to some toxic food additives, and their presence in the human body in high concentration has been related to the development of some diseases, such as allergies, hematological, autoimmune, and reproductive disorders, as well as the development of some types of cancer. Thus, the development and application of simple, fast, low-cost, sensitive, and selectivity analytical methods for identifying and quantifying food additives in different foodstuffs are fundamental to quality control and ensuring food safety. This review presents new insights into the detection of food additives in foodstuffs using the mains techniques of pulse voltammetry, differential pulse, and square wave voltammetry, indicating the main advantages, drawbacks, and the importance in the adequate choices of the working electrode materials to improve the analytical results. Also are shown some important redox mechanisms of food additives, which allows the development of reliable, accurate, and inexpensive voltammetric methods for quantifying these compounds in foodstuffs samples.