Solid-state potentiometric sensor for the rapid assay of the biologically active biogenic amine (tyramine) as a marker of food spoilage

•Optimization of a solid-state potentiometric sensor for Tyramine assay.•Validated sensor for Tyramine assay in different commercial food products.•Fast direct determination of Tyramine without sample preparation or derivatization.•Tyramine assay to indicate microbial contamination and poor storage conditions. Tyramine (TYR) is a vasoactive biogenic amine found in food products due to improper storage and poor hygiene. High TYR intake results in a wide range of life-threatening physiological reactions. The work optimizes a solid-state potentiometric sensor in the absence of a reported potentiometric method for rapid and direct TYR assay. The optimization study included thirteen membrane cocktails of different compositions. The optimized sensor proved a near-Nernstian slope of 57.30 mV/decade, a quantification limit of 10.6 ppm, and a detection limit of 7.9 ppm. Validation results confirmed the sensor ability for the direct assay of TYR in blue cheese, aged cheese, Egyptian pickled cottage cheese, and pickled herring. A comparison with the reported chromatographic method expresses the merits and potentials of the developed sensor for the rapid testing of food edibility, quality, and safety based on its TYR content. Chemical compounds studied in this article: Tyramine (PubChem CID: 5610); Tyramine hydrochloride (PubChem CID: 66449); Poly(vinyl chloride) (PubChem SID: 24864273); Tricresyl phosphate (PubChem CID: 6529); sodium phosphotungstate tribasic hydrate (PubChem SID: 329753864).