Innovative Food Technologies

Innovative Food Technologies

A Review on the Application of Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy in Quality and Freshness Assessment of Seafood Products

Document Type : Review Article

Authors
1 Department of Fisheries Science, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
2 Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
3 Nuclear Agriculture Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Karaj, Iran
Abstract
Seafood products, despite their high nutritional value, are highly perishable, and rapid, non-destructive assessment of quality and freshness has become a critical requirement throughout the supply chain. Conventional chemical and microbiological methods are often time-consuming, destructive, and difficult to implement in industrial production lines. Electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), as a rapid, low‌cost, and non-destructive technique, enables the evaluation of structural and biochemical changes in fish tissues by measuring their electrical response over a range of frequencies. This review aims to investigate and analyze the applications of EIS in the assessment of freshness, spoilage, and quality of aquatic products, while also examining the factors affecting its potential for industrial implementation. In this context, previous studies focusing on measurement principles, frequency effects, electrode configurations, mechanistic models, feature extraction approaches, and impedance data modeling were reviewed and analyzed.

The findings indicate that impedance parameters, including impedance magnitude, phase angle, spectral features, and their integration with chemometric approaches and machine learning algorithms, demonstrate considerable potential for establishing relationships with reference quality indicators such as TVB-N, K-value, microbial counts, and sensory evaluation. Furthermore, EIS has shown promising performance in monitoring quality changes during cold storage and differentiating various stages of spoilage. However, despite these advantages, several challenges, including strong dependence on measurement conditions, electrode type and contact configuration, temperature variations, tissue heterogeneity, and the lack of standardized protocols, remain major barriers to the widespread industrial application of this technology. Based on the reviewed studies, the future development of EIS in the seafood industry will largely depend on the advancement of portable sensing systems and the standardization of measurement procedures. Therefore, EIS can be considered a promising complementary technology for rapid and non-destructive quality monitoring of seafood products alongside existing assessment methods.
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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 29 September 2026

  • Receive Date 02 July 2026
  • Revise Date 27 September 2026
  • Accept Date 29 September 2026
  • First Publish Date 29 September 2026
  • Publish Date 29 September 2026