High-level experts, international organizations, industry and civil society representatives all highlight the tremendous potential of the fisheries and aquaculture sector now, and even more so in the future, to contribute significantly to food security, adequate nutrition and employment. This is particularly relevant for the European Union (EU), Portugal and in Brazil, for Ceará State, considering their actual economic strategy, geographical characteristics, but also their traditional diets. However, the presence of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), such as antibiotics, hormones, analgesics, psychiatric and anti-inflammatory drugs, in fishery commodities has being increasingly recognized as a food safety issue and public health threat. Actually, there are no routine analysis methods for most of the compounds and their control requires high cost analyses mainly based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. (Bio)sensors give a way of simplifying monitoring, making it more accessible and useable in more demanding situations. In this context, more accessible means: -portable; -useable by novice; -instrumentation which is cheaper and simpler to use; more demanding situations means: -minimum sample preparation due to high selectivity; -possibility of use in situ and real time monitoring. The remarkable characteristics of nanomaterials and nanoelectronics ensure enhanced performance of the (bio)sensors, allowing the development of innovative, portable and highly sensitive (bio)sensing platforms.
Thus, the main aims of this project are:
1)From a (nano)technological point of view:
To develop, validate and apply portable electrochemical (bio)sensing platforms for quantification of CECs in fishery commodities and waters.
2)From a public health perspective:
To provide consumers, governmental authorities and risk managers with better knowledge of CECs contamination problems in high-value fishery commodities.
3)From an environmental point of view:
To contribute to the protection and sustainable management of natural resources.

Chub mackerel, sardine, salmon, tilapia and shrimp are high-value species that will be characterized in this project. Species selection was based on their economic and social relevance for Portugal, EU and Brazil (in particular for the Ceará Federal State), in order to represent different classes of seafood, and also to be representative of wild, as well as freshwater and marine aquacultured species.
The project goals will be achieved by a multi-disciplinary international collaboration between REQUIMTE/LAQV, INL-International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, and the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil. The proposal is based on the scientific complementary expertise of the partners: REQUIMTE/LAQV on fish safety, biosensor development and chromatographic methods; INL on nanoelectronics and lab-on-a-chip platforms; UFC on chemical sensors and computational molecular modelling applied to bioelectrochemistry.