Romanian Journal of Food Science

EDITURA ACADEMIEI ROMNE

http://www.ear.ro

Official Journal of the Romanian Association

of Food Professionals
http://www.asiar.ro

New glucose biosensor: analytical tool for approximate assessment

of acrylamide formation in processed potatoes
Carmen CREANGA * and Nabil EL MURR *
University of Nantes CEISAM (UMR-CNRS 6230), B.P. 92208 44322 Nantes Cedex 03, France

Received 2 October 2010; received in revised form 5 November 2010; accepted 8 November 2010

Abstract
The disposable glucose biosensor that was developed is based on the concept of redox-flexible biosensor. It
associates two enzymes, the glucose oxidase (GOx) and horse radish peroxidase (HRP), with the same redox
mediator, namely, a derivative of ferrocene/ferricinium couple (FcR/FcR+). The detection step combines the basic
principles of the first and second generations of glucose biosensors with the addition of an important alternative for
the detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) based on redox mediated peroxidase reaction. Such a configuration offers
the option to work either in oxidation or in reduction mode. For measuring low concentrations of glucose, the anodic
mode is affected by the competition between the ferricinium cation and the oxygen for the oxidation of glucose in the
presence of GOx. Only the cathodic detection mode prevails in these cases. The use of carboxy-ferrocene as a
mediator permits to develop a sensitive biosensor capable of measuring concentrations as low as 0.01 mM, which
makes it suitable to quantify glucose in potato varieties appropriate for frying and roasting, i.e. which contain small
amounts of reducing sugars. By using this biosensor, the existence of good correlations between the amount of
glucose in the raw potatoes and the colour index assigned to corresponding chips and to their acrylamide contents
were showed. Additionally, these results show promising outlook for the assessment of the formation of suspected
carcinogen acrylamide in cooked potatoes.
Keywords: glucose biosensor, acrylamide, potato.

1. Introduction
In 2002 the University of Stockholm and the
Swedish National Food Authority (SNFA) published
the results of a research survey, which showed that
unexpectedly high levels of acrylamide were
generated in a wide range of starch-rich foods when
cooked at high temperatures (Tareke et al., 2002;
Website 1). Further research has quickly confirmed
these results and established that the main pathway
for acrylamide formation in food is linked to the
* Corresponding authors:
E-mail addresses: carmen.creanga@univ-nantes.fr (C. Creanga),
nabil.elmurr@univ-nantes.fr (N. El Murr).

Maillard reaction, which involves the thermal

degradation of aminoacids (asparagine) in the
presence of reducing sugars (glucose, fructose)
(Mottram et al., 2002; Stadler et al., 2002). This
finding was of great importance, since acrylamide is
classified by the International Agency for Research
on Cancer (IARC) as probably carcinogenic to
humans (Website 2).
Due to concerns on the possible risks of dietary
exposure to acrylamide for public health, a
consultation was held by the FAO/WHO in June
2002 (Health Implications of Acrylamide in Food,
Report of the FAO/WHO Consultation, 2002)
(Website 3). The highest acrylamide levels were
found in potato chips (French fries), potato crisps.

16
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New glucose biosensor: analytical tool for approximate assessment of acrylamide formation in processed potatoes

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Chemicals
Glucose oxidase (GOx, code GO3AC), horse
radish peroxidase (HRP, code HRP4C) and
Mutarotase (MUR1F) were purchased from
Biozyme UK. Phosphate buffered solutions were
prepared using KH2PO4, K2HPO4, and KCl, all
commercially available from Fluka. Ferrocene
derivatives were purchased from Aldrich. Aqueous
solutions were prepared in distilled water. All
chemicals were of the highest analytical grade and
used as received.
2.2. Apparatus
Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry
experiments were carried out with a PG580
Potentiostat from UniScan, UK. Electrochemical
characterization and analytical measurements were
performed using screen-printed electrochemical cells
(Gwent Group Ltd., UK) in a two-electrode
configuration consisting of a circular carbon

working electrode (6 mm diameter) surrounded by

an Ag/AgCl ring, which served as the reference and
counter electrode.
2.3. Disposable biosensor and sample preparation
The general procedure for preparing the
biosensors has been previously described (Creanga
and El Murr, 2010a). Samples were prepared by
crushing potato strips with water in a blender, and a
few millilitres of the juice were filtered through
cotton placed at the bottom of a plastic syringe.
2.4. Assay procedure
A volume of 40 L of the filtered potatoes
solution was placed on the surface of the biosensor
to measure glucose. The sample solution was left to
react for 3 minutes before applying a potential of
0.1 V vs Ag/AgCl on the surface of the working
electrode in chronoamperometry mode for
20 seconds. The program that controls the PG580
UniScan potentiostat allows for the operation to be
automatically managed by creating a cascade
profile that sets the delay time for reactions to the
end, the applied potential, and the chronoamperometry duration. To approximate the industrial use of
the biosensor, a single measurement was normally
performed. Only in the case of a flagrant error a
second measurement was carried out.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Potatoes and acrylamide
In spite of considerable cultural and national
differences in food consumption patterns and
cooking traditions, potatoes are considered to be one
of the most important nutritional sources all around
the world. To focus world attention on the
importance of the potato in providing food security
and alleviating poverty, 2008 was declared by
United Nations the International Year of the Potato.
Tables 1, 2 and 3 (Website 5) show that the world
potato sector is undergoing major changes. Until the
early 1990s, most potatoes were grown and
consumed in Europe, North America and countries
of the former Soviet Union. Since then, there has
been a dramatic increase in potato production and
demand in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where
output rose from less than 30 million tonnes in the
early 1960s to more than 165 million tonnes in 2007.
FAO data show that in 2005, for the first time, the
developing worlds potato production exceeded that
of the developed world. China is now the biggest
potato producer and almost a third of all potatoes is
harvested in China and India (Website 5).
17

Romanian Journal of Food Science 2011, 1(1): 1625

Biosensors for Food Processing and Quality Control

and other fried, deep-fried or oven-baked potato

products. Several reports have mentioned the good
correlation between formation of acrylamide and the
reducing sugars concentration (glucose/fructose) in
raw potatoes (Amrein et al., 2003; BiedermannBrem et al., 2003; Thomas et al., 2004; Fiselier and
Grob, 2005; Sheperd et al., 2010; Website 4).
Controlling reducing sugars content can therefore
help to restrain acrylamide levels in cooked potato
products. It can also help to predict quickly the
amount of acrylamide which may be formed. The
analytical
methods
commonly
used
for
measurements of sugars (Gas Chromatography,
Spectrophotometry) often require expert staff and
especially a long and tedious sample preparation.
Biosensors have the advantage of being sensitive
analytical tools, easy to use even by unskilled people
and allow to achieve rapid and inexpensive
measures. In this context, the glucose biosensor
seemed to be useful for rapid assessment of
acrylamide formation in French fries by simply
measuring glucose in raw potatoes. The
measurement of glucose alone (without fructose)
could, in many cases, provide a useful approximate
prediction for acrylamide formation. For this
purpose, a new disposable mediated enzyme based
biosensor was developed. It is capable of measuring
low concentrations of glucose (0.011 mM), in
accordance with the needs of potato industries,
which process potatoes with very little reducing
sugars content.

Carmen CREANGA and Nabil EL MURR

Table 1. World potato production, 19912007
Year

Biosensors for Food Processing and Quality Control

Countries
Developed
Developing
WORLD

1991

1993

1995

183.13
84.86
267.99

199.31
101.95
301.26

177.47
108.50
285.97

1997
1999
2001
Potato production, Million tons
174.63
165.93 166.93
128.72
135.15 145.92
303.35
301.08 312.85

Much of the potato production is destined for

processing industries which, nowadays, promote in
particular the production of frozen foods to be fried
or baked at high temperature. The growth of the fast
food industry in the last 20 years spurred the shift
toward frozen potato products, mainly French fries,
which became the most preferred product by
children and adolescents. The discovery of the
formation of acrylamide, a substance classified as a
human neurotoxin, showing genotoxic and
carcinogenic properties (Website 6), in starch-rich
foods, such as potatoes, when cooked at elevated
temperatures (Website 7), associated with the huge
potatoes market (Tables 13), have attracted considerable attention from researchers and government
agencies. Two main areas have been targeted: the
first relates to the understanding and prediction of
acrylamide production and the second to the
approaches for reducing its formation.
Table 2. Top ten potato producers, 2007
No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Country
China
Russian Fed.
India
United States
Ukraine
Poland
Germany
Belarus
Netherlands
France

Quantity, tons
72,040,000
36,784,200
26,280,000
20,373,267
19,102,300
11,791,072
11,643,769
8,743,976
7,200,000
6,271,000

Table 3. Potato consumption, by region, 2005

Region
Africa
Asia/Oceania
Europe
Latin America
North America
World

Population
904,388,000
3,934,644,000
739,203,000
562,270,000
330,400,000
6,484,792,000

Consumption
Total food, kg per
tons
capita
12,571,000 13.9
94,038,000 23.9
64,902,000 87.8
11,639,000 20.7
19,824,000 60.0
202,974,000
31.3

Several research groups (Mottram et al., 2002;

Stadler et al., 2002) have proposed that the main
pathway to acrylamide formation in food is via the

2003

2005

2007

160.97
152.11
313.08

159.97
160.01
319.98

159.89
165.41
325.30

reaction between asparagine and a carbonyl source

(e.g. reducing sugars) catalysed by basic ammonium
salts. Glucose and fructose are the important
reactants so far identified. Both asparagine and
reducing sugars can be found in potatoes in higher
amounts than in any other starch-rich food products,
and when they react at cooking temperatures,
acrylamide is formed as a result of the Maillard
reaction, which gives the fried potatoes their
characteristic browning. Therefore, factors which
affect the concentration of precursors (in particular
reducing sugars) such as crop variety, maturity at
harvesting, temperature and time of storage
(Hebeisen et al., 2005) and level of nitrogen and
phosphorous in the soil (Heuser et al., 2005) affect
acrylamide formation in the cooked product. A
number of recent studies have followed the amino
acid and sugar content of potatoes during storage.
Generally, storage at 220C for several months
had little effect on the free asparagine content, and
where different cultivars were compared, all
responded in a similar way. The relative stability of
amino acid content during storage at low
temperatures contrasts markedly with large increases
seen in glucose, fructose, and sucrose concentrations
(Lea et al., 2007 and references therein). Storage of
potatoes at temperatures below 810C has shown
to increase the concentration of reducing sugars
drastically and thus increase the acrylamide
formation when frying the potatoes. Therefore,
controlling storage conditions of potatoes is a simple
method for reducing sugar contents and,
consequently, acrylamide levels in cooked potato
products.
Glucose and fructose are the major constituents
of reducing sugar in potato tuber. Invertase
hydrolyzed sucrose into equimolar glucose and
fructose ratio. However, different turnover rates of
glucose and fructose may cause the ratio to deviate
from exact equimolarity. Many studies have shown
that there was a strong correlation between the
reducing sugar content in raw potatoes (the total
reducing sugar or glucose or fructose alone) and
acrylamide level in corresponding chips after frying.
Thus, the measurement of glucose, failing to
measure the three major precursor compounds of
acrylamide (asparagine, fructose, and glucose), can

18
Romanian Journal of Food Science 2011, 1(1): 1625

be used as a marker for the assessment of possible

formation of acrylamide (Ohara-Takada et al. 2005;
Brunton et al., 2007; Website 8). This measure can
indicate if potatoes are suitable for roasting or frying
regarding acrylamide formation and the colour of the
end product. From the perspective of industrial use,
or even at home, the determination of this quality
should be simple, in order to enable routine control
by unskilled people. Furthermore, the device to
measure glucose should not be very sophisticated,
but, at the same time, it should allow sensitive
measurements. They include the acceptable
quantities of reducing sugars in raw potatoes (less
than 1 g/kg) (Biedermann-Brem et al., 2003; Fiselier
and Grob, 2005) that enable after frying or roasting
to obtain end products of very good quality and
containing the smallest amount of acrylamide.

modified electrodes for the amperometric analysis of

glucose has continued to grow. The main driving
force for this expansion has undoubtedly been the
need to manufacture reliable devices for monitoring
diabetes. The great demand for home-care devices
and the huge market for blood glucose analysis
formed the basis of the rapid growth in development
of amperometric glucose biosensors. Many groups
worldwide have conducted research, generating an
enormous number of publications and leading to
considerable improvements in the original concept
(Wang, 2008 and references therein).

3.2. Glucose biosensor

The measurement of glucose is based on the

electrochemical quantification of either the decrease
of oxygen concentration (reaction 3) or the increase
of hydrogen peroxide concentration (reaction 4).
Practically, the measurement of H2O2 formation is
simpler. It is commonly achieved at a potential of
approximately +0.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl on a platinum
electrode.

Biosensors are analytical tools, which combine a

biochemical recognition component with a physical
transducer. The biological sensing element can be an
enzyme, antibody, DNA sequence, or even a microorganism. The biochemical component serves to
catalyse selectively a reaction or facilitate a binding
event. The transducer converts the biochemical
event into a measurable signal, thus providing the
means for detecting it. Signal measurement is based
on concurrent change in a physiochemical parameter
(e.g. heat, electron transfer, light, ion or proton flow,
etc.).
Biosensors using redox enzymes, more particularly
the glucose oxidase (GOx), are by far the most
studied. Their popularity is largely the result of
scientific advances in the fields of analytical
chemistry and also because of their large economic
and commercial success. Different generations of
oxidase-based biosensors have been developed in
particular to improve their analytical properties,
mainly their detection limit and selectivity, under the
influence of the interference of many substances
present in complex matrices of real samples (e.g.,
blood, food).
Since Clark and Lyons (1962) proposed the original
concept of glucose enzyme electrodes, the number
of publications dedicated to the preparation of new
Glucose + GOx(FAD)
GOx(FADH2) + O2
O2 + 4H+ + 4eH2O2

The research accomplished during almost 50 years

has mainly led to two generations of glucose
biosensor. The first generation is based on the
oxidation reaction (reactions 14) that associates
glucose with its natural oxygen substrate.

The first-generation biosensor, which depends on

oxygen, had the advantage of measuring low glucose
concentrations, but it also had the disadvantage of
low oxygen availability and fluctuation of its
concentration. This behaviour reduced the upper
limit of detection and impaired the accuracy of
measurements. Both disadvantages were major
drawbacks for blood glucose analysis, which led
many teams to develop new approaches to avoid the
restriction of oxygen for glucose measurement
(Gough et al., 1985; Reach and Wilson, 1992; Wang
and Lu, 1998; Wang et al., 2001).
One successful approach was the use of redox
mediators to substitute the oxygen in the oxidation
reaction of glucose in the presence of GOx and to
shuttle electrons between flavine adenine dinucleotide (FAD), the redox active centre of GOx, and the
electrode surface (Wang, 2008 and references
therein). This approach formed the foundation of the
second generation of glucose biosensors.
Gluconolactone + GOx(FADH2)

(1)

GOx(FAD) + H2O2

(2)

2H2O

(3)

O2 + 2H+ + 2e-

(4)
19

Romanian Journal of Food Science 2011, 1(1): 1625

Biosensors for Food Processing and Quality Control

New glucose biosensor: analytical tool for approximate assessment of acrylamide formation in processed potatoes

Biosensors for Food Processing and Quality Control

Carmen CREANGA and Nabil EL MURR

The second-generation glucose biosensor is based

on reactions 5, 6, and 7 where Mox and Mred are the
oxidized and, respectively, the reduced forms of the
artificial mediator that exchanges electrons between
the FAD of GOx and the electrode surface. The
reduced form Mred is oxidized at the electrode
surface to generate Mox, which, like oxygen in
reaction 2, regenerates the oxidized form of GOx
and the reduced form of the mediator. Thus, the
redox mediator is involved at the electrode surface
in a catalytic regeneration mechanism (EC), studied
by Savant and Vianello (1967), which amplifies the
anodic current produced at the electrode. The
catalytic current generated in the (EC) mechanism
is directly related to the concentration of the
chemical species, which does not exchange electrons
with the electrode surface (GOx here), but with the
electro-generated species (reaction 6). The
derivatives of ferrocene ((C5H5)2Fe or FcH) were the
first artificial redox mediators and probably the most
commonly used in the oxidation reaction of glucose
in the presence of GOx (Cass et al., 1984; Frew and
Hill, 1987). This has enabled the successful
production and marketing of reliable and easy-to-use
biosensors for glucose measurement in blood. Many
other artificial redox mediators such as ferricyanide,
transition metal complexes and polymers, and
phenothiazine have been used to relay electrons
between the working electrode surface of the
biosensor and GOx, permitting the preparation of a
wide variety of reagentless glucose biosensors
(Shichiri et al., 1982; Degani and Heller, 1987;
Pishko et al., 1990; Maidan and Heller, 1992;
Vijayakumar et al., 1996; Popescu et al., 1996;
Wang, 2001).
As far as glucose measurement in blood is
concerned, the second-generation of glucose
biosensor has solved the problems observed with
those of the first generation. In particular, (1) it is
not dependent on the oxygen and is not disturbed by
its fluctuation; (2) the potential applied at the
working electrode is less anodic than the one for
H2O2 detection, which avoids interference from side
electro-active products; and (3) it offers a
significantly higher upper limit for the linear range
that matches physiological concentrations of glucose
in blood.

The tremendous success of the amperometric

biosensor for glucose measurement in blood and the
ease of its use showed that other activities, such as
bioprocess monitoring, as well as food and
environmental analysis, could take advantage of
these advances. The application of biosensors to
these other activities remains rare in contrast to the
huge success in biological analysis. On the one
hand, unlike glucose measurement in blood,
biosensors for environmental or food analyses are
dependent on niche-type markets, where the demand
is varied and the sale volume quite low. On the other
hand, the technical specifications of biosensors
needed for these fragmented markets are not
identical to those developed for glucose analysis in
blood, particularly regarding interferences, detection
limits, and concentration scale levels. To bring
biosensors into such a fragmented market, new and
flexible designs should be considered. In this
context, the possibilities to combine the basic
principles of the two generations of glucose
biosensor with the addition of an important
alternative for the detection of H2O2 based on redox
mediated peroxidase reaction (reactions 8 and 9)
were examined.
H2O2 + 2Mred + 2H+

HRP

2Mox + 2e

2H2O + 2Mox

(8)

2Mred

(9)

This combination leads to redox flexible

biosensors or bioassays that offer the option to work
either in oxidation or in reduction mode (Figure 1)
(Charpentier and El Murr, 1995; Rondeau et al.,
1999; Serban et al., 2004; Serban and El Murr,
2006; Creanga and El Murr, 2010a, 2011). In such a
configuration, the same ferrocene/ferricinium couple
(FcR/FcR+) acts as the redox mediator for the
oxidation of the reduced form of glucose oxidase
and for the reduction of the oxidized form of
peroxidase. The advantage of this system is the
usage of the reduction mode for measuring low
amounts of glucose substrate. The disadvantage is
mainly caused by the participation of the oxidized
form of the mediator (FcR+), used for the quantifycation of H2O2, in the reaction of oxidation of
glucose catalyzed by GOx. This interfering reaction
affects the signal amplitude and thus the reliability
of the measurement.

Glucose + GOx(FAD)

Gluconolactone + GOx(FADH2)

(5)

GOx(FADH2) + 2Mox

GOx(FAD) + 2Mred + 2H+

(6)

2Mox + 2e-

(7)

2Mred
20

Romanian Journal of Food Science 2011, 1(1): 1625

New glucose biosensor: analytical tool for approximate assessment of acrylamide formation in processed potatoes

Gluconic acid

Glucose
GOx
K1

K2
-2e

O2

2FcR+

Anodic mode

H2O2

K3
2FcR

Interference

H2O
HRP
2FcR+

+2e
Cathodic mode

Figure 1. General scheme of reactions that can occur at the surface of the biosensor before
and after the heterogeneous electron transfer reactions.

The amplitude of the interference depends on the

redox mediators, which influence the rate constants
K2 and K3 of the two mediated enzymatic reactions,
which take place in the solution deposited on the
surface of the biosensor (Creanga and El Murr,
2010b). Such interference is particularly detrimental
when measuring samples with low concentrations of
glucose. A large number of ferrocene derivatives
were tested and some of them, in particular the
carboxy- ferrocene (FcCO2H), were found to
strongly disadvantage the reaction rate K2 compared
to K3. In this case, reactions 1, 2, 8 and 9 occur
preferentially so that the current resulting from the
reduction of the ferricinium derivative will be
proportional to the amount of glucose. The
advantage of this biosensor, although limited by the
oxygen availability, is the ability to measure
accurately concentrations as low as about 0.01 mM
of glucose. This makes it a very suitable biosensor
for measuring glucose in potato varieties appropriate
for frying and roasting, i.e. which contain small
amounts of reducing sugars.
3.3. Glucose biosensors for potatoes analysis
The great demand for measuring blood glucose
for diabetics has boosted the development of various
analytical tools for self-monitoring. This has brought
into the market several devices easy to use and
which virtually do not require tedious calibration. It
seemed interesting to test such devices for analysis
of glucose in aqueous media other than blood to find
out if they could be used for measuring glucose in
the juice of potatoes. The most popular devices

available on the home care market are the second

generation type amperometric biosensors. A typical
calibration curve obtained with such devices is
shown in Figure 1: this graph indicates that the
values displayed by the device do not reflect the real
concentrations of standard glucose solutions because
the biosensor is tailored for measurements in blood.
This does not represent a handicap for its use in
other media since it offers a linear range accessible
by simple calibration. Calibration curve in Figure 2
shows that the glucometer presents a linear range
between 1 and 5.5 g/L for aqueous standard
solutions of glucose. Between 0.6 and 1 g/L the
signal decreases significantly and below 0.6 g/L the
glucometer indicates no value (see insert in Figure
2). Given these analytical behaviours, such a
glucometer is not satisfactory for potato industries.
Indeed, the objective regarding acrylamide is to use
potatoes containing less than 1 g/kg of reducing
sugars (Biedermann-Brem et al., 2003; Fiselier and
Grob, 2005), value which corresponds to
approximately 0.5 g/kg of glucose.
The
redox-flexible
glucose
biosensor,
developed using various ferrocene derivatives as
mediators, was also tested and its ability to measure
low concentrations of glucose was examined. Figure
3 shows the calibration curves in the anodic and
cathodic mode obtained with a redox-flexible
biosensor using the couple Fc(CO2H)/[Fc(CO2H)]+
as mediator. In the anodic mode, this biosensor acts
as a second generation biosensor and does not allow
accurate measurements for low substrate concentrations, due to the competition between oxygen and
21

Romanian Journal of Food Science 2011, 1(1): 1625

Biosensors for Food Processing and Quality Control

2FcR

Carmen CREANGA and Nabil EL MURR

Glucose measured with glucometer, g/L

1
0.75

0.5
0.25

0
0

0.25

0.5

0.75

0
0

2
3
Standard glucose solutions, g/L

Figure 2. Calibration curve obtained with blood glucometer device.

Glucose, g/L
2
0
-2
-4
-6

0,0

0,1

0,2

0,3

0,4

Anodic mode
Cathodic mode

obtained from different varieties of potatoes for

which the amount of glucose was measured using
the biosensor and the colour of fried strips evaluated
using the USDA colour chart. The obtained
correlation shows that the glucose biosensor can be
used to predict the colour of fried potatoes in a quick
and easy way.
2,00

Glucose, g/kg

Current, A

Biosensors for Food Processing and Quality Control

y = 1.870xg/L
- 0.205
Glucose measured with glucometer,
R2 = 0.999

1,80

-8
-10

y = - 66.861x - 0.329
R2 = 0.999

Figure 3. Anodic and cathodic calibration curves

obtained with a redox-flexible biosensor.

ferricinium cation for the oxidation of glucose

(Martens et al., 1995; Creanga and El Murr, 2010b).
On the contrary, in cathodic mode, the biosensor
shows good sensitivity (66.8 A.L/g) and linear
range (0.004 - 0.01 g/L), which makes it appropriate
for the analysis of potato juices even with very low
glucose levels.
Measuring glucose in raw potatoes provides a
good estimate of the colour of French fries (Roe et
al., 1990; Khanabari and Thomson, 1993; Pritchard
and Adam, 1994). In the potato processing industry,
fry colour is often assessed using the chips colour
chart recommended by the US Department of
Agriculture (USDA), which has seven grades
starting from light coloured chips to dark coloured
chips. Figure 4 shows the comparative results

1,60
1,40
1,20

y = 0,51x - 0,94

1,00

R = 0,82

0,80
0,60
0,40
0,20

Colour index

0,00
1,5

2,5

3,5

4,5

Figure 4. Correlation between glucose content in raw

potatoes measured with the redox-flexible biosensor
and index colours of corresponding French fries.

Several studies have shown that there is a

correlation between the chips colour, resulting from
the Maillard reaction between reducing sugars and
asparagine, and the amount of acrylamide in French
fries (Ohara-Takada et al., 2005; Brunton et al.,

22
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New glucose biosensor: analytical tool for approximate assessment of acrylamide formation in processed potatoes

y = 34.49x + 91.71
R2 = 0.795

Acrylamide, g/kg

Linda

400
Celina
300

Melody

Proxy
Solara
Desiree
Karlena

200

0
2

4
6
8
Glucose, g/kg

References

Biedermann-Brem S., Noti A., Grob K., Imhof D.,

Bazzocco D. & Pfefferle A. 2003. How much
reducing sugar may potatoes contain to avoid
excessive acrylamide formation during roasting and
baking? Eur. Food Res. Technol. 217(5): 369373.

100

The authors of this paper would like to thank

Gwent Group Ltd., UK, who provided them with the
disposable electrochemical transducers, Aviko,
which allowed them to validate the biosensor in their
potatoes processing plant in Holland and the
European Commission for financial support (Grant:
COOP-CT-31588).

Amrein T.M., Bachmann S., Noti A., Biedermann M.,

Ferraz Barbosa M., Biedermann-Brem S., Grob K.,
Keiser A., Realini P., Escher F. & Amad R. 2003.
Potential of Acrylamide Formation, Sugars, and Free
Asparagine in Potatoes: A Comparison of Cultivars
and Farming Systems. J. Agric. Food Chem. 51(18):
55565560.

600
500

The present study is currently extending to a large

number of samples of different potato varieties.
Acknowledgments

10

12

Figure 5. Correlation between glucose content in

different raw potatoes varieties measured with the redoxflexible biosensor and acrylamide content
in corresponding French fries.

4. Conclusions
Disposable
redox-flexible
amperometric
biosen-sors using appropriate mediator and
operating in cathodic mode are suitable for the
analysis of the juices of potato varieties that contain
very low glucose levels. This type of biosensor is
inexpensive and easy to use even by unskilled
people. It is sensitive, presents a wide linear range
and is able to measure glucose concentrations as
small as 20 mg/L. Validation has been performed on
real samples and showed the existence of a good
correlation between the amount of glucose measured
in raw potatoes with the new disposable biosensor
and the colour of the corresponding French fries.
First experiments performed on a limited number of
potato samples gave promising results and showed
the prospect to assess the formation of the suspected
carcinogen acrylamide using the glucose biosensor.

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Biosensors for Food Processing and Quality Control

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Abbreviations
FAD flavine adenine dinucleotide
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations
FcR/FcR+ ferrocene/ferricinium couple
GOx glucose oxidase
H2O2 hydrogen peroxide
HRP horse radish peroxidase
K reaction rate
Mox/Mred oxidized/reduced mediator

25
Romanian Journal of Food Science 2011, 1(1): 1625

Biosensors for Food Processing and Quality Control

from Maillard reaction Products. Nature. 419(6910):

449450.