Conflict of InterestConflict of InterestThe authors declare no conflict of interest.
Halal verification and authentication of food products are an issue of major concern and one of these issues is related to the as halal verification of the alcohol content in foods, particularly in fermented beverages. From an Islamic point of view, alcohol is a serious matter and totally prohibited in food products. As food products are part of our daily life, Islamic Laws give a special significance to this issue. In Islam, foods containing alcohol are haram (prohibited or unlawful) for Muslim consumption [1]. Ethanol is the main constituent found in alcoholic beverages and other products that undergo fermentation.

Alcoholic drinks are totally prohibited in Islam, and even a small amount of the drink added into foods or drinks will render the products haram [2], but trace amounts of ethanol (naturally present as in fermented beverage) are allowed if the amount is insufficient to cause intoxication, usually less than 1% [3].Hence, developing analytical methods for halal verification is very important, especially for the Muslim consumers to protect them from prohibited or haram products and also to ensure product safety and quality. Conventional methods, such as HPLC, GC-MS & FTIR have been used for food analysis, where the food samples have to be sent to laboratories to analyze for the presence of alcohol. The process takes days and is very tedious. In addition, such methods are time consuming, are subject to sources of errors and discrepancies between laboratories, and need skilled personnel for operation of those expensive instruments [4].

Therefore, the development of alternative methods for ethanol determination which simplify the analysis is needed. If one could easily detect the presence of alcohol within minutes this would be very useful to the Muslim community for enforcement in determining the safe consumption of food products in terms of their halalness.In this context there is therefore a need to explore Batimastat alternative methods of ethanol detection for halal verification using a tool that is accurate, simple, low-cost, rapid, reliable and consumer-friendly. A biosensor is an excellent candidate for this purpose. Biosensors are versatile analytical tools, offering an attractive alternative for ethanol detection [5]. The use of enzyme-based biosensors for the detection of ethanol in complex samples offers better specificity and therefore, a simpler sample treatment. Alcohol oxidase (AOX) [6,7], NAD+-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) [8,9] and PQQ-dependent alcohol dehydrogenases [10,11] have all been used as bioselective elements in ethanol biosensors.