Polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) exhibits outstanding gas-barrier properties, which favor its use as a biodegradable, high-barrier coating on food-packaging films, possibly in combination with modified atmospheres. Nonetheless, its high sensitivity to water can result in a severe loss of barrier properties, significantly limiting its applications with fresh foods and in high-humidity conditions. In this work, the water vapor (P_WV) and oxygen permeability (PO₂) of high-barrier biodegradable films with PVOH/PLA + wax double coatings were extensively characterized in a wide range of relative humidity (from 30 to 90%), aimed at understanding the extent of the interaction of water with the wax and the polymer matrices and the impact of this on the permeation process. What is more, a mathematical model was applied to the P_WV data set in order to assess its potential to predict the permeability of the multilayer films by varying storage/working relative humidity (RH) conditions. The carbon dioxide permeability (PCO₂) of the films was further evaluated, and the corresponding permselectivity values were calculated. The study was finally augmented through modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) tests, which were carried out on double-coated films loaded with 0 and 5% wax, and UV-Vis analyses. The results pointed out the efficacy of the PLA + wax coating layer in hampering the permeation of water molecules, thus reducing PVOH swelling, as well as the UV-shielding ability of the multilayer structures. Moreover, the MAP tests underlined the suitability of the double-coated films for being used as a sustainable alternative for the preservation of foods under modified atmospheres.

The guarantee of food safety requires fast and accurate control for all contaminants, chemicals and bacteria, which are harmful to human health. Ensuring the safety and quality of food is the main interest both for the food industry and for consumers. In the food industry, the safety of a food product is evaluated through chemical and microbiological analysis: these procedures conventionally use the technique as chromatography, spectrophotometry and electrophoresis that are time-consuming, require highly trained personnel, are expensive and require steps of sample pretreatment, increasing the time of analysis. Consequently, among food and beverage industries, exists a growing demand in biosensing technologies as simple, rapid, accurate, low – cost and portable analytical devices for the monitoring and detection of chemical and microbiological contaminants (toxins, mycotoxins, pathogenic bacteria, pesticides and allergens) that endanger the food safety. Among biosensors, the label-free biosensors, characterised by direct detection of the analyte of interest, exploiting the advantages of an impedimetric transduction technique, seem to be the most promising devices for the future. In the last years, the potential use of Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy technique has been widely considered in the biosensor field; it is, in fact, a powerful, non-destructive and informative technique which can be used to study the electrical properties of the sensing device interface and to trace the reactions that occur on it. For these reasons, the application of impedimetric technique as a transduction technology has allowed the label-free detection and sensitive quantification of the bio interaction in different application and thus for the development of food hazards biosensors too. This review provides the current situation in the literature on label-free impedimetric biosensors in food safety.