The food processing industry is of global economic
importance. The consequences of microbial spoilage poses a risk to consumers’
health, causes severe economic losses to the manufacturers and retailers and
trust in the world’s food supply is breached when contamination occurs. If the
time interval for online analysis of food processing between production and the
detection of a microorganism can be reduced, this would provide industry with
the confidence to ship their food faster and reduce food waste. Sensors have
been identified as one method of delivering an online solution to microbial
monitoring and detection. Development in electrochemical sensors with
transducer developments by amperometric, impedimetric, potentiometric and
conductometric methods has been by far the largest group of sensors developed
to date. Conductometric sensors, have not gained a significant share of the
senor market. The application of conductometric sensors has been widespread in
particular as gas sensors and in engine oil quality. Their application in
microbial detection in food has been limited, even with their low cost of
fabricating. This chapter outlines developments and the applications of
conductometric sensors in general and in specific microbial detection.