Selective electrochemical determination of tertiary butylhydroquinone in edible oils based on an in-situ assembly molecularly imprinted polymer sensor

•MIP sensor was fabricated for selective detection of TBHQ in food samples.•An in situ electrochemical assembly was successfully used to fabricate MIP sensor.•The sensor allows sensitive detection of TBHQ with excellent analytical performance.•The detection results obtained by this method showed good consistency with HPLC. Developing selective and sensitive methods for tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) detection is of great significance to ensure the quality and safety of food. Herein, an electrochemical sensor was designed for selective and sensitive detection of TBHQ by integrating molecularly imprinted polymer, noble metal nanoparticles and carbon materials. The electrochemical sensor exhibited excellent performance for sensitive determination of TBHQ. The linear range was 0.5–60 μg mL−1 with a low detection limit of 0.046 μg mL−1. In addition, the results obtained by electrochemical method were well agreement with the detection results obtained by HPLC with good recoveries ranging from 99.4 to 108.5% in spiked edible oil samples. The present study not only has theoretical value to establish new methods for rapid detection of food additives but also has potential application values for monitoring the overuse of TBHQ.