Robust and sensitive determination of nitrites in pickled food by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Nitrites are ubiquitous in food and pose a serious threat to human health. Therefore, the rapid and accurate determination of nitrite ion concentration in food is a prerequisite for eliminating the damage of nitrites. In this study, a robust, rapid, and sensitive method is proposed for nitrite detection in pickled food, in which Au@Ag nanoparticles are used as a reliable surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate taking advantage of the high enhancement effect of silver and the good stability of gold. Nitrites were anchored to the surface of the SERS substrate by bridging with 4-aminophenylthiophenol (PATP). With Raman scattering cross-section amplification and internal calibration by PATP, a satisfactory linear relationship (R 2  = 0.987) was established for nitrite detection in the concentration range of 5.00–100.00 μM, and the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.17 μM. This SERS-based method demonstrated high selectivity, good precision (RSD < 7.00 %), and satisfying recovery rates (101.42–107.35 %) in real samples, thus improving the determination method for nitrites. Therefore, this method has application potential in food safety and supervision.