Progress in Plasmonic Sensors as Monitoring Tools for Aquaculture Quality Control

Aquaculture is an expanding economic sector that nourishes the world’s growing population due to its nutritional significance over the years as a source of high-quality proteins. However, it has faced severe challenges due to significant cases of environmental pollution, pathogen outbreaks, and the lack of traceability that guarantees the quality assurance of its products. Such context has prompted many researchers to work on the development of novel, affordable, and reliable technologies, many based on nanophotonic sensing methodologies. These emerging technologies, such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR), localised SPR (LSPR), and fibre-optic SPR (FO-SPR) systems, overcome many of the drawbacks of conventional analytical tools in terms of portability, reagent and solvent use, and the simplicity of sample pre-treatments, which would benefit a more sustainable and profitable aquaculture. To highlight the current progress made in these technologies that would allow them to be transferred for implementation in the field, along with the lag with respect to the most cutting-edge plasmonic sensing, this review provides a variety of information on recent advances in these emerging methodologies that can be used to comprehensively monitor the various operations involving the different commercial stages of farmed aquaculture. For example, to detect environmental hazards, track fish health through biochemical indicators, and monitor disease and biosecurity of fish meat products. Furthermore, it highlights the critical issues associated with these technologies, how to integrate them into farming facilities, and the challenges and prospects of developing plasmonic-based sensors for aquaculture.