Point-of-care analysis for foodborne pathogens in food samples based on a fully enclosed microfluidic chip cartridge

Abstract

Foodborne pathogens endanger public health and rapid, sensitive, and accurate detection of them is vital. Portable, highly integrated detection devices have great application prospects in the screening and analysis of foodborne pathogens. In this study, a fully automated detection device based on a fully enclosed microfluidic chip cartridge was successfully designed. This device integrates multiple functions, including nucleic acid extraction, reagent preparation, LAMP reaction, and signal detection. By simply adding a sample, it can simultaneously detect four types of foodborne pathogens, making it advantageous for the analysis of complex samples and improving detection accuracy. Additionally, freeze-dried reagents are integrated into the fully enclosed microfluidic chip cartridge, which allows the reagents to be transported and stored at room temperature, greatly reducing the cost of detection. It has been successfully applied in actual samples contaminated with multiple foodborne pathogens and has excellent stability. The entire detection process can be completed in 45 minutes, with a sensitivity of approximately 500 CFU mL⁻¹. Therefore, the automated microfluidic device would be adequate for point-of-care testing (POCT) with high simplicity and high speed, providing an advanced genetic analysis microsystem for foodborne pathogen detection.