Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
8.4 Bottlenecks
The dilemma about food nanotechnology is still going on. There should be more
studies about behaviour of food materials, while the nano size grinding. Moreover,
there should be toxicological studies. Exposure to nanomaterials as a result of
nanotechnologies being used in the food industry could take three main routes
which are ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation. The concern is that
nanoparticles with large reactive surfaces could cross biological barriers to reach
those parts of the body. Studies denote the potential of nanomaterials to cause DNA
mutation and cause major structural damage to mitochondria, even resulting in cell
death. There is limited scientific evidence about the risks to people being exposed
or the potential hazards that may exist to the newly developed nanotechnological
products. Usually, the impact of nanoparticles on the body, such as nanotoxicity,
depends on the properties like mass, particle size, surface properties, chemical
composition and how the individual nanoparticles aggregate together. Even though
there are various studies about toxicity of nanoparticles, it should be pointed out
that the results are frequently obtained for only one size and type of nanoparticles.
Furthermore, test animals are usually exposed to high concentrations under artifi-
cial conditions. This restricts the use of obtained data for risk assessment. Extrap-
olation from one size to another or from one type of nanoparticles to another is on
the basis of present knowledge still impossible (Blasco and Pico
2011
;
Bouwmeester et al.
2008
; Cushen et al.
2012
; Senturk et al.
2013
).
8.5 Conclusion
Future use of biosensors in the food area, the needs of the sector (imaging sensors,
sensor networks to create, provide multi-analyte detection, product quality
improvement, new product development, characterization of food components in
the nanoscale) must meet. Food samples could give significant improvements in
quality control of food safety through a rapid, simple and sensitive testing system
for agricultural products monitoring, and also, there should be clearness about the
nanoscale materials
toxicological effect on the food and food-related components.
'
References
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Andreu V, Blasco C, Pic
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