Agriculture Reference
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would also allow them to be invisible to the naked eye and easily hidden in different
materials or objects.
7.7 Conclusions
Nanotechnology is present in all steps of the food chain, and food contact materials
including food packaging are no exception. Many nanocomposites with different
nanomaterials (nanoclay, metallic and metal oxide nanoparticles, carbon
nanotubes) are postulated as a way to improve the packaging characteristics: barrier
to different gases, active packaging materials (oxygen scavenging, antimicrobial,
etc.), edible and biodegradable materials, or smart packaging, in which sensors
containing nanoparticles will inform the consumer about the properties of the food.
Other area of food packaging in which nanomaterials can be present is in the use of
invisible nano-labeling, with RFID chips or nano-barcodes. The scientific articles
concerning the use of new nanomaterials and their applications for food contact
materials are expected to continue increasing exponentially, as happened in the last
decade. Many of these applications are still at an early stage of development, but the
number of commercialized products containing nanomaterials will also grow in the
coming years.
However, some studies have stated the toxicity of nanoparticles to different
kinds of cells and crops, mainly because of the capacity of such tiny materials to
penetrate cell walls. In recent works, some authors also have demonstrated the
migration of nanoparticles from already commercialized food packages into food
simulants. An interesting fact is that the migration was much higher when heating in
a microwave oven, even for a very short period of time. In the current legislation for
migration assays, the experiments are made in a regular oven, and maybe these
results should be taken into account when preparing a new legislation for food
contact materials containing nanoparticles.
Another concern is the presence of nanoparticles in many edible and biodegrad-
able food packaging applications. In the first case, the nanoparticles will surely
enter the gastrointestinal tract, and there are not many studies that describe their
toxicity or if an accumulative effect can take place after many years of consump-
tion. In the second case, after the degradation of the material, the nanoparticles will
be released in the environment where, if no aggregation takes place, they will reach
soils and waters used for food crops.
One of the factors to consider is that there is not in the world a specific legislation
for nanomaterials for food or food contact materials. The development of the
legislation is at different stages in the different countries, but the most important
problem is the absence of a regulatory definition of nanotechnology or
nanomaterial, without which regulation is very difficult. While in the European
Union and in Australia and New Zealand, there are concerns about the presence of
nanomaterials in food contact materials and no product will enter the market
without a specific risk assessment, in Asian or US markets, there are many products
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