People’s health has been threatened by several common food hazards. Thus, it is very important to establish rapid and accurate methods to detect food hazards. In recent years, biosensors have inspired developments because of their specificity and sensitivity, short reaction time, low cost, small size and easy operation. Owing to their high precision and non-destructive characteristics, cell-based electrochemical detection methods can reflect the damage of food hazards to organisms better. In this review, the characteristics of electrochemical cell-based biosensors and their applications in the detection of common hazards in food are reviewed. The strategies of cell immobilization and 3D culture on electrodes are discussed. The current limitations and further development prospects of cell-based electrochemical biosensors are also evaluated.

Salt stress will have a serious inhibitory effect on various metabolic processes of plant cells, this will lead to the excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is a type of ROS that can severely damage plant cells in large amounts. Existing methods for assessing the content of H₂O₂ released from leaves under salt stress will cause irreversible damage to plant leaves and are unable to detect H₂O₂ production in real time. In this study, on the strength of a series of physiological indicators to verify the occurrence of salt stress, an electrochemical sensor for the detection of H₂O₂ released from leaves under salt stress was constructed. The sensor was prepared by using multi-walled carbon nanotube-titanium carbide–palladium (MWCNT-Ti₃C₂T_x-Pd) nanocomposite as substrate material and showed a linear response to H₂O₂ detection in the range 0.05–18 mM with a detection limit of 3.83 μM. Moreover, we measured the determination of H₂O₂ released from Arabidopsis leaves at different times of salt stress by the sensor, which was consistent with conventional method. This study demonstrates that electrochemical sensing is a desirable technology for the dynamic determination of H₂O₂ released by leaves and the assessment of salt stress to plants.