With
the widespread use of nanoenabled agrochemicals, it is essential
to evaluate the food safety of nanomaterials (NMs)-treated vegetable
crops in full life cycle studies as well as their potential impacts
on human health. Tomato seedlings were foliarly sprayed with 50 mg/L
ZnO NMs, including ZnO quantum dots (QDs) and ZnO nanoparticles once
per week over 11 weeks. The foliar sprayed ZnO QDs increased fruit
dry weight and yield per plant by 39.1% and 24.9, respectively. It
also significantly increased the lycopene, amino acids, Zn, B, and
Fe in tomato fruits by 40.5%, 15.1%, 44.5%, 76.2%, and 12.8%, respectively.
The tomato fruit metabolome of tomatoes showed that ZnO NMs upregulated
the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids and sphingolipid metabolism
and elevated the levels of linoleic and arachidonic acids. The ZnO
NMs-treated tomato fruits were then digested in a human gastrointestinal
tract model. The results of essential mineral release suggested that
the ZnO QDs treatment increased the bioaccessibility of K, Zn, and
Cu by 14.8–35.1% relative to the control. Additionally, both
types of ZnO NMs had no negative impact on the α-amylase, pepsin,
and trypsin activities. The digested fruit metabolome in the intestinal
fluid demonstrated that ZnO NMs did not interfere with the normal
process of human digestion. Importantly, ZnO NMs treatments increased
the glycerophospholipids, carbohydrates, amino acids, and peptides
in the intestinal fluids of tomato fruits. This study suggests that
nanoscale Zn can be potentially used to increase the nutritional value
of vegetable crops and can be an important tool to sustainably increase
food quality and security.