Food product safety is a public health concern. Most of the food safety analytical and detection methods are expensive, labor intensive, and time consuming. A safe, rapid, reliable, and nondestructive detection method is needed to assure consumers that food products are safe to consume. Terahertz (THz) radiation, which has properties of both microwave and infrared, can penetrate and interact with many commonly used materials. Owing to the technological developments in sources and detectors, THz spectroscopic imaging has transitioned from a laboratory‐scale technique into a versatile imaging tool with many practical applications. In recent years, THz imaging has been shown to have great potential as an emerging nondestructive tool for food inspection. THz spectroscopy provides qualitative and quantitative information about food samples. The main applications of THz in food industries include detection of moisture, foreign bodies, inspection, and quality control. Other applications of THz technology in the food industry include detection of harmful compounds, antibiotics, and microorganisms. THz spectroscopy is a great tool for characterization of carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids, and vitamins. Despite its potential applications, THz technology has some limitations, such as limited penetration, scattering effect, limited sensitivity, and low limit of detection. THz technology is still expensive, and there is no available THz database library for food compounds. The scanning speed needs to be improved in the future generations of THz systems. Although many technological aspects need to be improved, THz technology has already been established in the food industry as a powerful tool with great detection and quantification ability. This paper reviews various applications of THz spectroscopy and imaging in the food industry.

中文翻译：

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太赫兹光谱学和成像技术在食品中的应用综述

食品安全是公共卫生问题。大多数食品安全分析和检测方法昂贵，劳动强度大且耗时。需要一种安全，快速，可靠且无损的检测方法，以确保消费者可以安全食用食品。具有微波和红外线特性的太赫兹（THz）辐射可以穿透许多常用材料并与之相互作用。由于信号源和检测器的技术发展，太赫兹光谱成像已从实验室规模的技术转变为具有许多实际应用的多功能成像工具。近年来，太赫兹成像已显示出作为新兴的食品检测无损检测工具的巨大潜力。太赫兹光谱学可提供有关食物样品的定性和定量信息。太赫兹在食品工业中的主要应用包括水分的检测，异物，检查和质量控制。太赫兹技术在食品工业中的其他应用包括有害化合物，抗生素和微生物的检测。太赫兹光谱是表征碳水化合物，氨基酸，脂肪酸和维生素的绝佳工具。尽管THz技术具有潜在的用途，但它仍具有一些局限性，例如有限的穿透力，散射效果，有限的灵敏度和低检测限。太赫兹技术仍然很昂贵，并且没有适用于食品化合物的太赫兹数据库。在未来的太赫兹系统中，扫描速度需要提高。尽管许多技术方面需要改进，太赫兹技术已经在食品工业中确立为具有强大检测和定量能力的强大工具。本文概述了太赫兹光谱学和成像技术在食品工业中的各种应用。