Publication date: 15th December 2025
The evolution of agricultural systems by including digital technologies into agriculture is reshaping post-harvest monitoring, enabling sustainable, non-destructive quality assessment methods. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) offers a robust method for characterizing physicochemical changes in fruits and thereby providing insight into quality evolution during ripening and rotting. Despite its potential, broader adoption of EIS is hindered by the reliance on non-biodegradable, short-term adhesive electrodes.
Here, we present an edible electrically conductive adhesive, fabricated from food-derived materials such as zein (a corn-derived protein) as adhesive matrix and activated carbon (food additive E 153) as conductive filler.[1] The formulated acrylic-like viscous ink is compatible with ink brushing deposition technique permitting direct application on fruits. Thus, the dried adhesive on fruit constitutes novel EIS sensing electrodes which exhibit food contact safety and long-term adhesion and electrical conductivity, overcoming the current limitations for sustained EIS. We apply his food-safe approach for the reliable monitoring of the bioimpedance of table grapes, as a function of storage time, chosen as a relevant study case as they are one of the most economically significant horticultural crops worldwide. Our system enabled continuous monitoring of grapes over several days and detected significant impedance changes within the first 24 hours. These findings demonstrate the potential of our food-compatible EIS platform for fruit quality monitoring.
N.C.-P. acknowledges support from the postdoctoral fellowship program Beatriu de Pinós 2024 BP 00190, funded by the Secretary of Universities and Research (Government of Catalonia). M.C. acknowledge the support of the European ResearchCouncil (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 research andinnovation program within the project “ELFO”, grant agreement no.864299. This work ispart of the IIT Flagship project on Technologies for Sustainability.
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