Thin film technology is widely used in everyday objects to improve the performances of bulk materials, such as anti-corrosion and anti-wear, or self-cleaning properties, while using a very low amount of raw materials. Some examples of devices comes from our everyday life, such as LEDs, solar cells and eventually sensors. Sensors are of particular interest especially for food safety, which became recently one of the most important global issues. The inappropriate handling and the consumption of spoiled food causes, every year, serious problems to millions of people all over the globe. In many cases, the presence of biogenic amines, such as putrescine or cadaverine produced by the breakdown of amino acids, indicates the microbial spoilage of the food. The unpleasant odor of such biogenic amines indicates a high volatility of these compounds, which are therefore detectable by chemical and/or physical sensors. Among the methods used for the detection of biogenic amines, such as chromatography, electrochemistry, chemiluminescence, and chemiresistance, optical methods provide a reliable and fast response with simple setups. It is worth mentioning that great advances have been recently made in the development of E-noses for food spoilage ,using mostly cross-reactive metal oxides and colorimetric sensor arrays. However, the use of metal oxide-based E-noses generally require high temperatures, are humidity sensitive, and cannot distinguish closely similar compounds. Herein, we report an unprecedent type of thin film semiconductor that can act as an optical sensor enabling to distinguish analogous amines even by naked eyes. The exposure to amines causes an irreversible change in the optical properties such as absorption and bandgap, fluorescence emission and IR spectrum. The change in photonic properties enables to use these materials not only as highly sensitive sensors, but furthermore to tune the absorption and emission of this semiconductor material, over the whole visible spectrum. Controlling the absorption/emission properties is of interest for application in photonic and optoelectronic devices.