This module introduces the applications of nanotechnology in the food sector, focusing on enhancing food safety through nanobiosensors, improving food value via nanoformulations, and extending shelf life with nano-enabled food packaging.
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hello students
welcome to epg pathshala i'm dr mini
singh from department of biotechnology
of punjabi university patiala
today we are going to discuss about food nanotechnology
nanotechnology
and its introduction under the paper nanobiotechnology
nanobiotechnology
during the course of this entire module
you have studied about the basic biomolecules
biomolecules
the nanostructures you also studied
about various applications ranging from
pharmaceutical applications
environmental applications but one
lesser-known application of
nanotechnology is in the food sector
that is why it is important for us to
understand what
nanotechnology holds in this sector also
this module has been specifically
designed to give you an introduction
of the various applications that
nanotechnology holds in the food industry
industry
the reason why this is important is to
is because nanotechnology is gaining
input us
in various fields and one important
field is in the in
in food in food applications how this happens
happens
what are the various applications of
nanotechnology in food
will be discussed in this module
these six modules are the last modules
of the paper on nanobiotechnology
and we will take you through certain
specific examples or illustrations too
during the course of this paper based on this
this
this module has been designed with the
following objectives
nanotechnology in food applications
wherein we will discuss three
separate applications first is the food
safety nanobiosenses
followed by nanoformulations in food
applications nanoformulations are used for
for
enhancing the value of certain foods
for human use followed by nanotechnology
in food packages
now food packages is a very interesting
application of food nano technology
wherein we will see how nano materials
have been used or impregnated or devised
inside the conventional nano materials
and how the properties of these
conventional packages enhance
when we say properties they could be
tensile strength properties
they could be mechanical properties they
could also be barrier properties
with barrier we mean whether the
impregnation of these nanoparticles
within the conventional food packages is
able to enhance
or diminish the barrier of certain gases
where do these gases come from these
gases since we're talking about live
food materials
when live food materials are stored
there is respiratory activity
when respiratory activity happens there
is exertion of certain gases
and those gases become a marker for
telling us whether
the food is still safe to consume or
whether it is
in a position where we can we have to
withhold the production or sale of that
food package despite
these opportunities which food
nanotechnology holds
the various applications that we will be understanding
understanding
we understand them as opportunities
which are taken up by scientists and
using these
particles or nanomaterials for for
certain applications
however we also have to understand what
are the challenges
that nanotechnology poses towards the
use of these
materials or the applications of these
materials in the food sector
coming to applications of nanotechnology
in the food sector
these are broadly classified into two types
types
one which is the out of food
applications and one
which is the in food applications when
we talk about
in food applications we are essentially
talking about those applications which
involve direct contact of the food material
material
with the nanoparticles or fabricating
particles in such a manner
that they themselves become a part of
the food
in food applications also means that we
are talking about
formulations we are talking about
sensors which come in direct contact
with the food or we are also talking
about nano additives
whereas the out of food applications essentially
essentially
talk about those sensors which do not
come in direct contact with the food matrix
matrix
that's one and second we are talking
about food nano packages in which the
materials are embedded inside the
conventional material
so the nano material does not come in
direct contact with the food
why we talk about out of food
applications in particular is
because there is always a concern about
the leech of nanoparticles inside the food
food
the fda classifies the food
nanoparticles into two broad categories
one is in the in the range of one two
hundred nanometers
but beyond that there's also one more
range which is from 101 to 1000 nanometers
nanometers
conventionally when we talk about
nanomaterials they only fall in the
range of 1 to 100 nanometers
but it's only in the food applications
that this definition has been extended
to 1000 nanometers which means that when
we are altering the size the natural
size of a biomolecule into a nanorange
to alter its physical properties or to
alter its chemical properties
we are also looking at not only
dissolution of those particles
but we also have to look at the safety
of those particles
the out of food applications such as
those in food nano packages
prevent those kind of concerns of toxicity
toxicity
because the material the nanomaterial is
not in contact with the food directly
it is only in contact with the food
package it is let's say we have two
we have two layers of packages of
conventional and within it we have
layered it
with a nano material that nano material
let's say
is enhancing or preventing the barrier of
of
oxygen so that food material that that
layer of nano material
does not come in direct contact with the
food so therefore
we will talk about in food applications
as well as
out of food applications we have just
understood the various applications
of nanotechnology in the food sector
vis-a-vis within the food and outside of food
food
in this module particularly we will be
talking about
applications of nanotechnology
particularly in food safety nano sensors
nano formulations and active packaging films
films
when we talk about food safety nano
sensors we're talking about nano
material enabled nano sensors which have
been developed for enhancing
the sensitivity of detection of certain
pathogens and contaminants which are
present in food
nano formulations are being developed
extensively for enhancing the value
of food we survey the use of hydrophobic
nutraceutics in eco solutions
active packaging firms understand the
use of
active packages smart packages as well as
as
intelligent packages in you know nano
packaging films
one of the first applications that we
are going to begin to understand
of nanotechnology in food is the food
safety biosensors
and the very reason we talk about food
safety biosensors
is because we have to understand food safety
safety
food is a fundamental consumption of
every human or
every animal therefore when we talk
about food safety
we're not only talking about food safety
of humans we are also talking about food
safety for the animals
one specific concern that the who has
towards food safety is they estimate
that every year
one third of the population falls ill
because of contamination
because of consumption of contaminated
food how does this food get contaminated
we have had incidences international incidences
incidences
or food poisonings or food infections
we would understand food poisonings and
food inspections
food infections when they when they
happen on a large scale
the food has to be withdrawn from the market
market
which means it incurs huge losses for
the industry
so it is always incumbent to to study
about food safety biosensors
to know how the food safety assessments
are to be done
the food safety concerns are broadly
classified into two categories
one is the microbiological risks this is
when we talk about
highly perishable foods like milk meats
poultry or processed foods such as
cheese or other dairy fruits or fruit juices
juices
these kind of foods are highly
perishable foods and they fall under the
category which had which is more liable towards
towards
spoilage therefore one kind of spoilage
that particularly occurs in these kind
of foods is the microbiological spoilage
which is mainly caused by salmonella listeria
listeria
campylobacter or streptococcus species
the other category of food spoilage is
the chemical risks which are involved
the chemical risks will include certain
food contaminants
certain editors food contact materials
and fraudulent adulterants when we talk
about food contaminants they could be
metal toxicity
such as consumption of fish which was
contaminated with mercury
mercury toxicity is a very common
toxicity amidst fish
because of mercurial mercurial poisoning
in the in the rivers
the metal toxicity other than mercury
is arsenic toxicity there is a huge
incidence of arsenic
toxicity which is being which is being
portrayed nowadays
there is certain happen in certain
riverlets where in those rivers if there is
is
if there are certain microflora there
are certain animals of the
of consumption or fish which have
consumed that kind of water
there is every possibility of that metal
toxicity to pass on
through the food chain into the humans
therefore it is very important
to develop sensors or techniques which
are able
to sense these kind of contaminants
additives such as antibiotics
are a huge concern a lot of the food gets
gets
rejected in the international market
because of presence
of antibiotic residues and antibiotic
residue detection becomes one other arena
arena
of biosensor detection fraudulent chemicals
chemicals
are a concern in the community because a
lot of
fraudulent chemicals in particular urea
in milk
and also melamine and milk have been
added merely for
for mere commercial gains it is very
unfortunate that this is happening
but as a scientific computer community
it is our responsibility
to develop techniques which will be able
to detect
these kind of fraudulent chemicals
the table that is shown here enlists the
various classes
of contaminants and pathogens which are present
present
are commonly found in foods mycotoxins
amidst them apogelous aspergillus toxins
which are okra toxins and fusarium
toxins which are fumonsins
are very prevalent in cereals such as wheat
wheat
corn and rice other foods in which it is
prevalent are wine
and fruits fungicides
cannabisin is one fungicide which is
found very commonly in meats and poultry
other classes of it are also found in
wheat based foods
antibiotic residues are a big concern
when export of foods
is happening is happening cross borders
antibiotic residues are mostly found
in meats poultry and milk and honey products
products
pathogens are a key concern in detection
because they owe to
food poisonings and food infections
therefore it is very important to
develop techniques
which allow faster and rapid and highly
sensitive detection of these pathogens
the most commonly occurring pathogens in
foods are salmonella
in eggs meats and poultry campylobacter
in milk and poultry and listeria
in milk and cheese looking at the presence
presence
of these toxicants and pathogens and foods
foods
it is important for food technologists
to develop
techniques which allow the specific
detection of these analytes
therefore the arena of food analytics
the objectives of food analytics are
highly specific detection
in which there is no crosstalk when we
say no crosstalk
it particularly means that if i'm trying
to detect salmonella
i should not be detecting wisteria in between
between
the sensitive detection should be highly
sensitive which also means that we
should be able to detect these analytes
at very low concentrations which is
called ultra sensitive detection
this is so because if we have minute
quantities of antibiotics we should be
able to detect them at a very very small concentration
concentration
the objective of rapid detection in
biosensors or sensors
talks about detection in terms of
seconds or minutes
vis-a-vis hours and days typically when
we talk about pathogen detection
it takes 24 to 36 hours but when we are
looking at
new age sensing techniques we are
looking at detection which ranges from seconds
seconds
to minutes there are certain challenges
which are posed when we talk about ultra
sensitive detections when we talk about
no crosstalk distractions
what in particular are these challenges
when we develop biosensors
we have to overcome challenges of those
which are posed by conventional
techniques that is the very reason that
we start developing alternative techniques
techniques
the conventional techniques are not able
to detect certain analytes at very low concentrations
concentrations
and it is important for certain analytes
to be detected at concentrations before
which they become toxic
these concentrations are called ultra
sensitive concentrations
it is therefore incumbent to develop
biosensors which are able to detect
these analytes
at very low concentrations when we mean
very low concentrations
we should be able to detect them before
they become
toxic with a high degree of accuracy
this is the first challenge
which is posed when food safety
biosensors are to be developed
the second challenge posed is crosstalk
in conventional techniques when we are
trying to analyze a certain kind of
analyte there is every possibility that
analyte b
or analyte c may also be present in the
matrix because food is a complex matrix
so the presence of analyte b and analyte
c will in all probability
interfere with the with the sensing of
analyte a
therefore we have to develop techniques
which which are
aimed only at development of analyte a
or sensing of analyte a
and not allow the analyte b or analyte e
as crosstalks to come in or interfere in
the sensing
the third kind of challenge of
conventional techniques
is the conventional techniques need very
extensive sample free treatments
let us say for example i want to detect
an analyte
detect an antibiotic in a food so what
will be the need is i
take that food i first extract that antibiotic
antibiotic
and then put it to some color
colorimetric reaction
or some biophysical method and then only
i'll be able to detect
the antibiotic this has to be overcome
because this is a time consuming process
we need to develop techniques
which are nearly on site which would
mean i do not need
extensive techniques to separate the
antibiotic i may just be possible
to dip the the sensor into that food and
it should give me an output signal
sounds challenging but this is how
slowly and gradually as scientists we
are working towards it
and it is possible too the
one more challenge which is posed
particularly in pathogen detection
is the time of analysis conventionally
when we detect pathogens which are
mostly bacteria
it takes minimum 24 to 36 and up to 48
hours for a detection
because we need to culture the bacteria
and we need to read the colonies on the plate
plate
this is the challenge which is posed for
for detection of pathogens
biosensors are aimed to develop
techniques biosensing techniques
which are able to detect pathogens at in
very small times
which means rapid detection in the
course of this module we will see certain
certain
examples in which pathogen detections
have been done in merely one and a half
hours vis-a-vis 24 36 or 48 hours
so these are the challenges which are
posed and we have to overcome these challenges
challenges
to develop advanced techniques of
detection using nanomaterials
food safety nanobiosensors
before we talk about nanobiosensors let
us see
what are biosensors
biosensor is an analytical technique
which uses two components
the biological component in close
conjunction with the transducer
the biological component comprises enzymes
enzymes
whole cells antibodies or abdomens
if i give you an example enzymes would
be if let's say if you want to detect
glucose glucose oxidase enzyme will be
the most compatible enzyme to use
since we're talking about biosensors it
is important that the biological
component is in close combination with
the transducer
and the two most commonly used transducers
transducers
in biosensors are electrochemical
and optical since we are talking about
biosensors it is important that the
biological component of the biosensor
is in close communication with the
transducer there are different classes
of transducers which are used in biosensors
biosensors
these are electrochemical thermometric
wherein there is change in temperature
which is detected
coloring metric if there is a change in
color which is
visible to the naked eye piezoelectric
and surface acoustic wave
transducers which are typically physical
transducers which detect a change in
mass or change in the oscillation frequency
frequency
of the sensor optical biosensors
which we'll talk about fluorescent
sensing surface enhanced resonance
sensing or fluorescence quenching and
field effect transistors in which there
can be
the possibility of linear miniaturization
miniaturization
of a device the most successful kind of
transducers which have been developed
are the electrochemical
and the optical transducers in
subsequent modules
we will take these separately in this we
are looking at a milk urea biosensor
urea is one of the fraudulent
adulterants which is added to
milk therefore its detection is
important if you look at the
second column of the table you will look
at 23 minutes and on its right you will
see eight minutes
23 minutes is the response time which
was received by
microbial based biosensing vis-a-vis v8
minutes which was a response received by
enzyme-based biosensors depicting
thereby that in this case the
enzyme-based biosensor was a better model
model
if you look at the last column we have
used an enzyme-based biosensor but it is
impregnated with nanoparticles
and looking at the time of detection
time of detection has come down significantly
significantly
to 20 seconds this is yet another
example of a nanosensor for detection of
small organic molecules such as melamine
melamine is yet another fraudulent
chemical which is used
in milk for enhancing its protein
concentration it gives a false
concentration of proteins in this work
scientists have you used functionalized
gold nanoparticles as detectors
when they come in contact with melamine
their color changes from red
to blue this is yet another example
of a visual detection of melamine in raw
milk by label-free
silver nanoparticles the difference in
this work is that the planar particles
are label-free
which means that they have not been
ascertained and they have not been
functionalized with any groups
so the yellow colored dots that we see
are silver nanoparticles
which when they come in contact with
melamine which is which is the structure
shown in the middle
they agglomerate and they change their
color to pink
the tm images of the same
depict are depicting the same the image
which is labeled b
shows the silver nanoparticles without
the presence of melamine
and c shows the presence of silver
particles nanoparticles
in the presence of melamine which is
leading to agglomeration
this work is a typical example of how
the use of nanoparticles in matrices can
enhance the response of biosensors
one such biosensor developed was a
biosensor for superoxide anion radicals
which is a reactive oxygen specie
by the use of superoxide dismutase
enzyme immobilized on a carbon nanotube
in a poly pyrrole matrix polypyrol
itself is an electrically conducting
matrix however
when carbon nanotubes are added to that
matrix it enhances the electrical
conductivity of the biosensing element
what is depicted in the figures below is
on the right
we see a dotted line which is an almost
flat sort of curve whereas on the left
if you look at the dotted line we will see
see
at a position at point a where there is
an appearance of a distinctive peak
similarly there is a appearance of a
distinctive peak at position b
on the left figure these
appearances of distinctive peaks are
only happening
after the addition of carbon nanotubes
in the matrix
this figure which is a cyclic
voltammogram of a response
clearly depicts what was explained
earlier that when sarcable nanotubes are
embedded into a matrix it enhances the response
response
what is seen clearly is a very sharp
peak an oxidation peak
which appears above as well as a
reduction peak which appears below
both of which are very sharp and clear
this is an example of pesticide detection
detection
again using carbon nanotubes with
polyaniline as an immobilization matrix
in this work pesticides were detected in
fruits and vegetables
what is important to note here is the
sensitivity of detection which is as low
as 1.4 micro molars
and a short detection time of only 10
minutes this work
shows the detection of a pathogen salmonella
salmonella
by using gold nanoparticles as well as
magnetic nanomark particles
what is important in this work is a
response time as slow
as as short as 1.3 hours
vis-a-vis conventional techniques which
could take from 24 to 36 hours
the second application that we're going
to talk about is nano formulations and
how these nano formulations are used as
vehicles for value
addition of foods what do we mean by
value addition
most of the nutraceuticals are
hydrophobic in nature
which means that they cannot be utilized
in their full capacity by the body
human body because human body is 70
aqueous in nature
so how can we convert these hydrophobic molecules
molecules
into a how can we lend hydrophilicity
to these hydrophobic molecules so that
when they are consumed
they become more bioavailable to the
system so we will study how nano
formulations are used
to achieve this objective since we have
shifted attention
of application of nanotechnology to yet
another field of nano formulations
one of the examples that i would like to
detail is the use
of nutraceutics in foods nutraceutics
are naturally
healing molecules which are present in food
food
they have therapeutic properties but
they have certain limitations too
one of those limitations is that most of
these nutraceutics are hydrophobic in
nature which means that they are not
aqueous soluble
this poor aqua solubility renders low
bioavailability to these nutraceutics
what does this mean
this means that if we are consuming this
new these nutraceutics
only a very few a very small percentage
of it will be
bioavailable or available to the body
because our body
is 70 percent aqueous therefore
nanotechnological applications have
looked into increasing the
equisolubility of these kind of formulations
formulations
and the most popular kind of formulation
in foods
is nano-emulsion nano-emulsions
as also liposomes are lipid-based
nano-formulations which have been used
or developed successfully
with enhanced bioavailability of these
nutraceutical compounds
in particular nanomaltians have been
prepared for beta-carotene omega-3 fatty acids
acids
and top of rawls a company by the name
of neutralize
has developed novel carriers for
nutraceuticals which is to be
incorporated in food systems and
cosmetic nano formulations
what happens with these is the
bioavailability of the product is
increased by a technology called nano
size self-assembled
liquid structures the nssl
this company has developed these
vehicles and used them
for increasing the bioavailability of
coenzyme q10
luteins lycopenes phytosterols
and vitamin d all of which are classes
of nutraceutical compounds shown in this figure
figure
is value addition of food by the use
of nano emulsions of beta-carotene
beta-carotene is a nutraceutic with
pro-vitamin a capacity
otherwise beta-carotene molecule is a
hydrophobic molecule it cannot be
dissolved in equal systems
therefore we develop nano-formulations
as nano-emulsions of beta-carotene
and used it for value addition of
aqueous as well as fat based foods
the upper portion of the figure shows
how these nano-emulsions beta-carotene
and emulsions have been used for adding value
value
to butter whereas the lower portion
shows how
the beta carotene non-emulsions have
been added to lychee juice
typically had we added a salt of
beta-carotene to these formulations
it would have not got dissolved because
of its hydrophobic character
a yet another application of nano emulsions
emulsions
is their antibiotic activity or
antimicrobial activity
it has been shown and it has been
reported by by workers
that nano emulsions are very effective
against a great variety of food
pathogens particularly gram negative bacteria
bacteria
shown in this slide on the left is
treated uh
treated whereas on the right is shown an untreated
untreated
plate showing the growth of salmonella typhurium
typhurium
it is clear from this picture a clear plate
plate
shows that shows the antibiotic
character of the nano emulsion
beta carotene we have established is a
nutraceutical compound so is curcumin
curcumin is a bioactive character which
is present in turmeric
both of these are again hydrophobic in
nature which is attributed to their structural
structural
to their structure the figure on the
left shows nano dispersions of beta
carotene in aqueous solutions of kitosin
based amphiphiles
you can see very clearly the different
colors of the beta-carotene solutions
the nano-dispersions with increase in color
color
on the right are curcumin flakes which
are not in a nano formulation vis-a-vis
curcumin flakes which are in a nano
formulation which is seen to be
completely soluble
in water one of the final applications
that we will introduce you in this
module is the food nano packages
as briefly told before the nano packages
are being developed
to enhance the properties of
conventional packages
these nano packages are broadly
classified into three categories
improved packages active packages and
smart packages
improved packages means where you have improved
improved
the the mechanical properties as well as
the barrier properties of the material
active packages would include those packages
packages
wherein some active materials such as
antimicrobials or antioxidants have been added
added
which enhance the shelf life of the food
smart materials are essentially those which
which
which have indicators such as indicators
such as nanomaterials in which certain
indicators have been put
which will change color when the
physical state of the food
has changed during the course we will
see certain specific examples of all
these three kinds of packages
talking about applications of nanotechnology
nanotechnology
in food packaging what is shown here is
how these applications
are used in enhancing the character of
food packaging films
with which the fruit the food can remain fresh
fresh
for longer in the image shown on the right
right
is impregnated and oxygen absorbing layer
layer
within the loom the phone nano package
which helps
in increasing the barrier properties of
the film
by increasing these barrier properties
of the film the
shelf stability of foods can be enhanced
though still in the in its conceptual
stages but
what's shown here is a milk pack that
changes color every day as the expiry
date gets
closer what's shown here is a work which
has been done by
a university in lithuania in their
process of developing
antioxidant films in this essential
clove oil
which has antioxidative character was developed
developed
but a step ahead of that was that silver
nanoparticles were also added
to this nano formulation to enhance the
tensile strength of this packaging film
when we talk about improved packages we
are talking about
improved characters in terms of
mechanical strength as well as enhancing
the barrier properties
of these packaging films when we talk
about barrier properties we are trying
to limit
the transport of any gases through the
packaging films
the figure on the left shows a linear
path for
oxygen whereas the figure on the right
shows a lot of sort of tedious parts
which the oxygen molecule has to take
which improves the character of a food
packaging film because
it takes longer time for the oxygen to
permeate inside the film
therefore the diffusing gas molecules do not
not
pass perpendicularly whereas these
diffusing molecules navigate around
nanocomposites increasing the mean gas
diffusion length and thus the shelf life
of foods though we have discussed all
the opportunities that food
nanotechnology opens for us
such as food safety nanobiosensors
nanoformulations as vehicles for value
addition in foods
as well as packaging materials nano
enabled which are nano enabled
for food packaging films yet there are
certain challenges
which are posed one of them is the
safety issue
the safety of nanoparticles needs to be ascertained
ascertained
particularly when they have to be used
directly in food applications
therefore we talk about regulatory
compliance the fda
classifies nanoparticles to be used in food
food
into broad categories one from one to
hundred nanometers
and the other from one zero one to one
thousand nanometers
therefore typically what we would think
of a nanoparticle
in the dimension of only 100 nanometers
but in food technology or in food applications
applications
this dimension enhances to 1000 nanometers
nanometers
therefore when we develop processes or
when we develop products which are
enabling the use of nanoparticles we
need to see
that whether these fall in this category
and secondly whether
these are safe third
the affordability of these nano enabled applications
applications
though we are talking about very um
distinctive applications of nanotechnology
nanotechnology
yet we do not have to forget that while
developing these
uh these applications and processes
these should also be
affordable we would conclude now
and we've understood the various
applications of nanotechnology in particular
particular
the food safety biosensors the nano formulations
formulations
as well as the food nano packages however
however
before we take up any of these
applications on a commercial skill
it is important to keep the fda
regulations in mind
other than that once we are able to do
that these applications will
open up a huge a whole new generation of products
products
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