A pocket laboratory for food: Indonesian nanosensors can sniff out pesticides and fraud on the spot

Testing food for pesticide residues or fraud usually means sending samples to a distant laboratory and waiting. In her professorial address at IPB University on October 24, chemist Wulan Tri Wahyuni presented portable nanosensors that work more like a glucose meter: handheld electrochemical devices, their electrodes coated with graphene, carbon nanotubes and metal nanoparticles, that can detect trace contamination quickly — even in cloudy or deeply coloured foods that defeat optical tests. The targets are practical ones: pesticide residues, chemicals leaching from packaging, and food fraud, checked where the food actually is.

SDG 2 · Zero hunger — Mechanism: tech innovation