Nanotechnology in Foods - Nanotechnologies in Food and Agriculture - page 15

or lipophilic substances, active functional agents such as antimicrobials, anti-
browning agents, antioxidants, enzymes, flavors, and colors with enhanced mois-
ture and gas barrier properties. These are developed from food-grade ingredients
(proteins, polysaccharides, lipids). These functional agents would improve the
storage life and quality of coated foods such as meats, cheese, fruit and vegetables,
confectionery, bakery goods, and fast food (Weiss et al. 2006 ). The US company
Sono-Tek Corp. announced in early 2007 that it has developed an edible
antibacterial nanocoating which can be applied directly to bakery goods and is
currently under testing with its clients (Miller and Senjen 2008 ).

1.10 Nanosensors in Food Safety and Analysis

Ensuring the food safety and its analysis is the need of time for any food industry.
Nanosensors are devices consisting of an electronic data processing part and a
sensing layer or part, which can translate a signal such as light or the presence of an
organic substance or gas into an electronic signal structured at the nanometer scale
( http://files.nanobio-raise.org/Downloads/Nanotechnology-and-Food-fullweb.pdf ).
Nanosensors are used for spoilage detection in food and food products.
Nanosensors are used in the detection of adulterants, pathogens, toxins, toxic
compounds, and harmful artificial colors and flavors or ingredients in the food
products. Available nanosensor types and their potential applications in the food
sector are summarized in Table 1.3 .
Nanosensors may be used for pathogen detection in food and food products and
reduce the time of detection. Such nanosensors could be incorporated in packaging
material and would serve as “electronic tongue” or “noses” by detecting chemicals
released during food spoilage (Garcia et al. 2006 ). Microfluidics devices are also
known to detect pathogens with real time and high sensitivity. Microfluidic sensors
are used to detect compounds of interest rapidly in only microliters of required
sample volumes. Microfluidic sensors had widespread applications in medical,
biological, and chemical analysis.

Table 1.3 Types of nanosensors with potential applications in foods sector
Types of
nanosensors Potential application Reference

Array
biosensors

Detection of food-borne
contaminants

Bhattacharya et al. ( 2007 ) and Doyle ( 2006 )

Electronic nose Wine discrimination Garcia et al. ( 2006 ) and Bhattacharya

et al. ( 2007 )

Carbon
nanotube-based
sensors

Measuring the levels of
capsaicinoids in chili
peppers

Baruah and Dutta ( 2009 ), Naja et al. ( 2009 ),
Sozer and Kokini ( 2009 ), and Tang et al. ( 2009 )

Microfluidic
devices

Lab on a chip Vo-Dinh et al. ( 2001 ), Baeummer ( 2004 ), and

Mabeck and Malliaras ( 2006 )