Several complex set of engineering and scientific challenges in the food and bioprocessing industries for manufacturing high quality and safe food through efficient and sustainable means can be solved through nanotechnology. Bacteria identification and food quality monitoring using biosensors; intelligent, active, and smart food packaging systems; and nanoencapsulation of bioactive food compounds are few examples of emerging applications of nanotechnology for the food industry. We review the background about the potential of nanotechnology, provide an overview of the current and future applications of nanotechnology relevant to food and bioprocessing industry, and identify the societal implications for successful implementation of nanotechnology.

In the food and agricultural industry, sensors are being used for process control, monitoring quality, and assessing safety. There is a growing demand for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) sensors in the bulk food storage sector, because CO 2 sensors can be used to detect incipient spoilage and to assess CO 2 levels in modified-atmosphere packages and storage structures. The market potential for reliable and inexpensive CO 2 sensors is huge because of a wide range of applications in the agri-food industry. This review synthesizes information about the types of CO 2 sensors, analyzes their detection processes, provides a broad overview of the innovative research on the development of sensors, sensing mechanisms, and their characteristics, and outlines future possibilities for use of CO 2 sensors.

Microfluidics, a rapidly emerging enabling technology has the potential to revolutionize food, agriculture and biosystems industries. Examples of potential applications of microfluidics in food industry include nano-particle encapsulation of fish oil, monitoring pathogens and toxins in food and water supplies, micro-nano-filtration for improving food quality, detection of antibiotics in dairy food products, and generation of novel food structures. In addition, microfluidics enables applications in agriculture and animal sciences such as nutrients monitoring and plant cells sorting for improving crop quality and production, effective delivery of biopesticides, simplified in vitro fertilization for animal breeding, animal health monitoring, vaccination and therapeutics. Lastly, microfluidics provides new approaches for bioenergy research. This paper synthesizes information of selected microfluidics-based applications for food, agriculture and biosystems industries.

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