New analytical systems for assessing the presence of toxins in the dairy industry

MANUNET : TOX-HAZ-ASSESS

PN III – Program Cooperarea Europeană și Internațională – Subprogram 3.2 - Orizont 2020

Financing contract no: 33/2017

Period of founding: May 2017- May 2019

Project Director: Dr Doni Mihaela 

The project consortium is a transnational one consisting of three partners from two countries, Romania and Spain. The consortium complementarities are given by:

  • The expertise of the research group from CO-ICECHIM in development of fast and sensitive bioassay methods
  • The experience of P2-DropSens in design, fabrication and commercialisation of electrochemical screenprinted devices and in the development of small and portable spectro/electrochemical instrumentation
  • The capacity of P3-EPI SISTEM to develop hardware and software solutions for different kind of industrial and/or research analytical systems.


The project aims to develop a new manufacturing method for an analytical system, based on an innovative combined surface-plasmon resonance - electrochemical platform integrated into an on-line flow analysis configuration. The project is co-ordinated by ICECHIM, the biggest R&D institute in chemistry field from Romania. Partners are DropSens, a very successful SME from Asturias, Spain and Epi Sistem, an ambitious SME from Romania. Partners‘ expertise, capabilities and market share complete each other in a synergic way, due to the research subject complexity and interdisciplinarity: from immunoassay concept to flow immunoanalyzer design and optimisation; from manufacturing of devices to final integration of the analytical system for toxin hazard assessment in dairy industry including testing and validation.

Project aims to develop a new manufacturing method for an analytical system, based on an innovative combined surface-plasmon resonance - electrochemical (SPR-ELEC) platform integrated into an online flow analysis configuration.


Specific objectives of the project are:

  • To develop the first sensor based on the combination of surface plasmon resonance with electrochemical detection (SPR-ELEC sensor)
  • To develop a flow analysis module based on the SPR-ELEC platform
  • To develop and optimize an on-line analytical system for aflatoxin M1 determination in milk
  • To validate the on-line analytical system for toxin hazard assessment in dairy industry.

Innovation regarding current state-of-the-art is resulting from:

  • The combination of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) detection with the electrochemical (ELEC) detection in a common platform, which ensure a greater precision for assessment of milk toxin hazard
  • The solutions chosen for manufacturing the combined SPR-ELEC platform, which lead to an affordable final selling price, which could be included easy into the costs of dairy industry
  • The selection of the matrix used to immobilize the specific reagent for toxin recognition / detection, which allow a repeated operation with the same immobilized reagent
  • The integration of the SPR-ELEC based analytical system with the sampling system on the critical control point, which allows automation for toxin hazard assessment for milk value chains.