Multifunctional porous organic framework materials for food safety:Future perspectives and applications

Food safety and functional materials form a close interconnection. Through molecular design and modification, multifunctional materials acquire specialized attributes including targeted recognition, efficient adsorption, and intelligent responsiveness, establishing multi-tiered protection frameworks for modern food safety protocols. Especially multifunctional porous organic framework materials (POFs), including metal organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs) and hydrogen bonded organic frameworks (HOFs), have shown great potential in the field of food safety due to their inherent structural, physical, and chemical properties. POFs materials exhibit high adsorption capacity and selectivity for target analytes, enabling effective separation and enrichment of target substances in complex samples and improving detection sensitivity. Meanwhile, POFs materials have the ability to keep their structural and performance characteristics stable within complex environments. Future studies should optimize POFs structural/physicochemical properties and scalability to advance food safety applications. This review proposes interdisciplinary optimization of POFs, leveraging their tunable porosity, structural diversity, and functional flexibility to overcome current limitations and advance food safety monitoring. It also systematically summarizes the current challenges, critical issues, and future research directions regarding the application of POFs materials in food safety, offering scientific references and strategic guidance for advancing this field. • This review summarizes the latest advancements in porous organic framework materials for food safety applications. • Analyzed the physical and chemical advantages of porous organic framework materials in food safety. • The multifunctional applications of three porous organic framework materials in food safety were introduced. • Provide suggestions for future research directions of porous organic framework materials in food safety.