Recent advances in high-throughput droplet-based microfluidic screening platforms for food analysis

As a novel type of miniaturized instrumentation, high-throughput droplet-based microfluidics is playing an increasingly significant role in food safety inspection and quality control. The popularization of traditional instrumental analysis is largely limited by the need for lengthy analysis time and costly instrumentation. The novel high-throughput droplet-based microfluidic screening platform (DMSP) has advantages of high screening rate, single-cell packaging, and less reagent consumption that solves the drawbacks of traditional instruments. In this review, we introduce the generation and manipulation of high-throughput DMSP, after which we summarize their recent applications in food analysis. These applications were demonstrated in the directed evolution of microorganisms for fermented food, improving the catalytic efficiency of enzymes for food processing, screening of nutraceutical ingredients, and detection of hazardous substances. We also provide a critical evaluation of the state of high-throughput DMSP and suggestions for future development directions.