Is nano safe in foods? Establishing the factors impacting the gastrointestinal fate and toxicity of organic and inorganic food-grade nanoparticles

Abstract

Nanotechnology offers the food industry a number of new approaches for improving the quality, shelf life, safety, and healthiness of foods. Nevertheless, there is concern from consumers, regulatory agencies, and the food industry about potential adverse effects (toxicity) associated with the application of nanotechnology in foods. In particular, there is concern about the direct incorporation of engineered nanoparticles into foods, such as those used as delivery systems for colors, flavors, preservatives, nutrients, and nutraceuticals, or those used to modify the optical, rheological, or flow properties of foods or food packaging. This review article summarizes the application of both inorganic (silver, iron oxide, titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, and zinc oxide) and organic (lipid, protein, and carbohydrate) nanoparticles in foods, highlights the most important nanoparticle characteristics that influence their behavior, discusses the importance of food matrix and gastrointestinal tract effects on nanoparticle properties, emphasizes potential toxicity mechanisms of different food-grade nanoparticles, and stresses important areas where research is still needed. The authors note that nanoparticles are already present in many natural and processed foods, and that new kinds of nanoparticles may be utilized as functional ingredients by the food industry in the future. Many of these nanoparticles are unlikely to have adverse affects on human health, but there is evidence that some of them could have harmful effects and that future studies are required.

Comparative Effects of Silver Nanoparticles, Sucrose and Sodium Chloride as Osmotic Solutions for Tomato Slices: Antioxidant Activity, Microbial Quality and Modelling with Polynomial Regression Model

“…Osmotic dehydration using AgNPs preserved and improved antioxidant activity of tomato slices better than other solution. Three-way ANOVA (R 2 = 0.998) conducted on the results revealed additive statistically significant effects of osmotic agents, concentrations and temperatures on antioxidant activity, F (8,54) = 67.854, P = 0.00. Additive statistically significance RESEARCH ARTICLE L. Azeez, A. Lateef, A.A. Wahab, A.L.…”

“…AgNPs Sucrose NaCl Concentration/ppm 75 50 25 75 50 25 75 50 25 Temperature 60 °C 6.34E-08 6.20E-08 5.76E-08 5.10E-08 5.12E-08 5.15E-08 5.64E-08 4.83E-08 5.87E-08 70 °C 6.09E-08 6.06E-08 5.97E-08 5.86E-08 5.54E-08 5.36E-08 5.89E-08 6.18E-08 5.97E-08 80 °C 6.74E-08 6.33E-08 6.11E-08 6.16E-08 5.74E-08 5.19E-08 6.55E-08 5.42E-08 5.93E-08 of binary effects of osmotic agents and concentration gave F (4,54) = 790.449, P = 0.00, osmotic agents and temperatures gave F (4,54) = 169.551, P = 0.00, while solution concentrations and temperatures gave F (4,54) = 101.485, P = 0.00.…”

“…Though there is dearth of information on the toxicity of AgNPs from food consumption but concerns about the potential toxicity likely due to release of silver ion (Ag + ) exist. [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]54,55 However, results of Yekeen et al 56 show that AgNPs has minimal effects on the inhibition of Allium cepa cells. Consequently, a comparative study with biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesized from extracts of cocoa beans (CBE) as an alternative to constantly used osmotic solutions was undertaken in this study.…”

Design principles of food gels

“…Safety. Little research has been carried out on the potential toxicity of food biopolymer particles after absorption, mainly due to the challenges of their analytical detection in biological matrices that contain similar components 130 . As discussed above, orally introduced food gels are often degraded within the human gastrointestinal tract or excreted from the body via stool, and even those that are absorbed are highly biocompatible and biodegradable; for example, absorbed chitosan is hydrolysed by lysozymes in body, thus it is to be expected that most food gels are non-toxic, at least compared with inorganic particles and other organic particles.…”

Nano-based approach to combat emerging viral (NIPAH virus) infection

“…98 Further the use of ONPs over INPs is well appreciated in biomedical sector specifically due to various safety issues. 99 Encapsulation of drugs favors avoiding off-target toxicity which results in enhanced augmentation at targeted site. Again, the mode of delivery of therapeutics could be modulated by selecting specific design features and chemical requirements for the synthesis purpose.…”