Abstract: Crops are susceptible to mycotoxin contamination during growth, harvest, and storage. These contaminants can enter the food chain through processed foods and feed, posing significant risks to humans, including acute or chronic poisoning. The development of efficient detection technologies for mycotoxins in foods is crucial for ensuring food safety and protecting public health. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-based electrochemical nanosensors have garnered significant attention in food safety detection owing to the fact that they can integrate the advantages of MOFs including high specific surface area, ordered pore structures, abundant functional groups and adsorption sites, tunable architectures, and excellent chemical stability, and they are simple to operate and highly sensitive. This review article summarizes recent advancements in MOF-based electrochemical nanosensors for mycotoxin detection in food matrices. It systematically discusses the structural features, properties, and synthesis methods of MOFs tailored for mycotoxin detection, highlights recent progress in their application and analytical advantages, and critically analyzes existing challenges in the application of MOFs in the field of electrochemical sensing. Furthermore, future trends in the application of MOF-based sensors in food safety detection are envisioned.

Key words: metal-organic frameworks; electrochemical sensors; preparation methods; mycotoxins; food safety