Herein, we present: (1) a comprehensive assessment of the inherent fluorescence background of several target food products across several wavelengths, (2) an evaluation of fluorophore-labelled oligonucleotide visibility when positioned alongside target food backgrounds, and (3) the first report of fNAP contact printing. Collectively, objectives 1 and 2 offer a holistic evaluation of the suitability of specific wavelengths and their associated fluorophores for in situ food monitoring -results that have high applicability towards the future design of sensors in this space. They also informed the design of probes used in objective 3, where contact-printed sensors directly embedded onto food packaging offered performance comparable to conventional array fabrication strategies, substantiating the presented approach.