**3. Food and water security: the global concern**

The safety, quantity, and the quality of food and water are becoming worldwide concerns. Water is the most crucial source for human development. With the advancement of human life, uncountable contaminants are intimidating the aquatic system. These intimidations include but not limited to automation/

**141**

*Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) in Food, Water, and Drug Analyses: Recent…*

industrialization, widespread use of chemicals, increased population, and suburbanization. Subsequently, water pollution is becoming a significant health and

these pollutants, heavy metals, elevated anions (sulfates, phosphates, fluoride, etc.), dyes, agricultural waste, pesticides, drugs, and pharmaceuticals are the most common. Heavy metals, in specific, are widely used in many industrial, domestic, and agricultural applications, and they are nondegradable, an issue that raises the concern about their potential influence on public health, water systems, and the ecosystem in general. As, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Hg have been reported to be the highest

By and large, the safety of food and water is influenced by contaminants. Among

According to the US EPA and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), these toxic elements are probable to be carcinogenic. Moreover, accumulation of Pb, Cd, and Hg in the human body over time can cause serious health

Similarly, food, leather, and textile industries discharge huge amounts of polluted wastes. With the various structures of the chemicals used in these industries, numerous problems develop. Dyes, a key water pollutant and even if discharged as traces (as low as 1 ppm), would color large volumes of water.

produced annually, demonstrating the magnitude of the problem. Released dyes do not only affect the aquatic beings but also the human health. Their impact includes carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, poisoning, disturbance of the metabolism

On the other hand, and representing a significant category of aquatic pollutants, pharmaceutically active materials (PhAMs) are usually released into the aquatic systems from different sources, including but not limited to the effluents of the manufacturing sites and hospitals, illegal disposal, veterinary applications, and landfill leachate. Daily use by humans and the subsequent conversion of PhAMs into various metabolites with variable chemical structures is also a major source. The fate of these metabolites, and probably their parent drug compound, is usually

The increasing understanding of the assembly of the food chain and the probability of infection of human with these resilient microorganisms, either directly or via the food chain, has explained largely the spread of these species. Therefore, the process of food production and commercialization is posing rigorous regulations nowadays. Different societies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), European Union (EU), and World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) creating the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), are setting up standards for the maximum residue levels (MRLs) permissible in raw and processed food products of animal or poultry origin. Yet, any food product that would conform to these criteria and the preceding risk assessments cannot be banned by

The elevating concerns on food and water safety and the existence of these materials at relatively low concentrations have created the need to find sturdy as well as sensitive detection and removal/remediation technologies. Detection technologies included traditional techniques such as spectrophotometry, spectrofluorimetry, atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), as well as electrochemical and the more sophisticated chromatographic approaches [27, 28, 39–49]. Each of these

Electrochemical techniques are among the widely used techniques for detection of pollutants in food and water analyses. The following subsections will be focused

tons per annum are being

Reports show that amount of dyes as huge as 7 × 105

countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) [34–38].

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92333*

environmental concern.

systemic toxicant elements.

in aquatic bodies, etc. [27, 28].

the wastewater [29–33].

techniques has its pros and cons.

problems [22–26].

*Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) in Food, Water, and Drug Analyses: Recent… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92333*

industrialization, widespread use of chemicals, increased population, and suburbanization. Subsequently, water pollution is becoming a significant health and environmental concern.

By and large, the safety of food and water is influenced by contaminants. Among these pollutants, heavy metals, elevated anions (sulfates, phosphates, fluoride, etc.), dyes, agricultural waste, pesticides, drugs, and pharmaceuticals are the most common. Heavy metals, in specific, are widely used in many industrial, domestic, and agricultural applications, and they are nondegradable, an issue that raises the concern about their potential influence on public health, water systems, and the ecosystem in general. As, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Hg have been reported to be the highest systemic toxicant elements.

According to the US EPA and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), these toxic elements are probable to be carcinogenic. Moreover, accumulation of Pb, Cd, and Hg in the human body over time can cause serious health problems [22–26].

Similarly, food, leather, and textile industries discharge huge amounts of polluted wastes. With the various structures of the chemicals used in these industries, numerous problems develop. Dyes, a key water pollutant and even if discharged as traces (as low as 1 ppm), would color large volumes of water. Reports show that amount of dyes as huge as 7 × 105 tons per annum are being produced annually, demonstrating the magnitude of the problem. Released dyes do not only affect the aquatic beings but also the human health. Their impact includes carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, poisoning, disturbance of the metabolism in aquatic bodies, etc. [27, 28].

On the other hand, and representing a significant category of aquatic pollutants, pharmaceutically active materials (PhAMs) are usually released into the aquatic systems from different sources, including but not limited to the effluents of the manufacturing sites and hospitals, illegal disposal, veterinary applications, and landfill leachate. Daily use by humans and the subsequent conversion of PhAMs into various metabolites with variable chemical structures is also a major source. The fate of these metabolites, and probably their parent drug compound, is usually the wastewater [29–33].

The increasing understanding of the assembly of the food chain and the probability of infection of human with these resilient microorganisms, either directly or via the food chain, has explained largely the spread of these species. Therefore, the process of food production and commercialization is posing rigorous regulations nowadays. Different societies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), European Union (EU), and World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) creating the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), are setting up standards for the maximum residue levels (MRLs) permissible in raw and processed food products of animal or poultry origin. Yet, any food product that would conform to these criteria and the preceding risk assessments cannot be banned by countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) [34–38].

The elevating concerns on food and water safety and the existence of these materials at relatively low concentrations have created the need to find sturdy as well as sensitive detection and removal/remediation technologies. Detection technologies included traditional techniques such as spectrophotometry, spectrofluorimetry, atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), as well as electrochemical and the more sophisticated chromatographic approaches [27, 28, 39–49]. Each of these techniques has its pros and cons.

Electrochemical techniques are among the widely used techniques for detection of pollutants in food and water analyses. The following subsections will be focused

*Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy*

is far from equilibrium [3].

Hz and up to 106

electroanalytical approaches applied for the same purposes.

ally used for detection of pollutants in food, drug, and water.

**3. Food and water security: the global concern**

as low as 10<sup>−</sup><sup>4</sup>

**2. Chapter taxonomy**

analysis will be exhibited.

mentioned.

lytes (solid/liquid), polymers, and glasses [18–21].

It is noteworthy to mention that impedance spectroscopy (IS), depending on the material used, the device, and the system or process to be studied, has two main categories: EIS (the topic of this chapter) and dielectric IS. A major difference is that EIS applies to systems/materials involving chiefly ionic conduction, in contrast to electronic conduction in the case of dielectric IS. Therefore, it can be observed from the fields of EIS applications that EIS usually applies to systems like electro-

In general, EIS measurements involve the application of an alternating current (AC) voltage or current to the system under investigation, followed by measurement of the response in the form of AC current (or voltage) as a function of frequency. Measurements are usually performed using the potentiostat, and the measured response is analyzed using a frequency response analyzer (FRA) [18]. By and large, three factors make EIS exceptionally attractive in terms of applications:

1.Capability to explore the ES at relatively low frequencies using the minimal perturbation that in turn serves to keep the kinetic information of the system under investigation at near zero conditions (steady state). Therefore, EIS is said to be a steady-state and nondestructive technique. The majority of the electrochemical techniques, however, involve an application of large perturbation for sensing the membrane/electrolyte interface, with the purpose of obtaining mechanistic data following the driving of the reaction to a state that

2.Feasibility of implementation of EIS into the system to be measured.

Hz.

3.The usefulness of data obtained in characterizing the studied ES, where EIS provides on-site data on the relaxation data over a range of frequencies, from

A combination of the three advantages led to the wide use of EIS as previously

The current chapter throughout the following sections is investigating the applications of EIS in a variety of matrices, mainly in food, drug, and water analysis, and the recent advances in these fields as well as comparisons between EIS and other

Throughout the current chapter, readers will be exposed to the different analytical techniques, especially the electrochemical-based approaches, which are gener-

Readers will be more focused on the applications of EIS in specific. A comparison between EIS and the other techniques commonly used in water and food

The safety, quantity, and the quality of food and water are becoming worldwide concerns. Water is the most crucial source for human development. With the advancement of human life, uncountable contaminants are intimidating the aquatic system. These intimidations include but not limited to automation/

**140**

on the electrochemical approaches and EIS in specific in detection of contaminants in water and food samples.
