Comparatively, fluorescence transduction platforms present a much more viable strategy, given the ease with which fluorophores can be integrated onto biorecognition molecules -such as protein and oligonucleotide probes, yielding singular entities with both recognition and reporting capabilities. Antibodies and oligonucleotide probes in particular, represent some of the most applied biorecognition probes, offering unique advantages that make them suitable for varying conditions. RNA-cleaving fluorescent nucleic acid probes (fNAPs) have been explored most extensively in the food sensing space, owing to their ease of functionalization, high stability, low cost, and simple detection cascade. Composed of a probe strand joined to a substrate strand, their design usually involves the incorporation of a fluorophore-quencher pair within the substrate strand, flanking the ribonucleotide cleavage site. In the event of target exposure, cleavage induces the release of the quencher, resulting in fluorescence recovery. With regards to contamination, several highly specific, pathogen-responsive fNAPs have been reported in recent years, some of which have shown efficacy within food-based applications. Contrarily, fNAP-based approaches to spoilage detection have not been explored yet, but fluorescent aptamer-based systems targeting histamine -a spoilage marker for meat products, have been reported. The development of in situ food sensors is expected to be a growing area of research, especially with the continued discovery of new probes that detect targets of interest with high sensitivity. However, with consideration towards subsequent sensor development, there is a lack of research aimed at determining relevant baseline properties of target food products -work that would better educate the design of future platforms. With regards to fluorescent sensors specifically, optimal transduction fluorophores for target food products are yet to be identified.