Chapter 11 - Nanoantimicrobials in Food Industry

Abstract

Antimicrobial additives are successfully used in food to inhibit growth of spoilage and pathogenic microorganism, enhancing food safety and shelf-life. However, the emergence of multidrug-resistant microbes, new food-borne disease outbreaks, and the demand for long-life foods have resulted in trying to find a safe and efficacious range of antimicrobial agents for food industries. Nanotechnology as a new technology is able to meet the needs for improved antimicrobials. Decreased size of antimicrobials down to nanoscale improves their activity mainly due to increased relative surface area. Nanostructured food antimicrobials, either inorganic materials including nanosized metals especially nanosilver or organic ones such as nanochitosan, have recently attracted attention due to their potential inhibitory effects. Moreover, the application of nanocarriers including nanoemulsions and nanoparticles for the protection and delivery of antimicrobials increases efficacy of presently used antimicrobials by providing stability and precision targeting in food matrices. On the other hand, the addition of nanomaterial with no antimicrobial activity such as nanoclays and nanocellulose into food packaging can indirectly increase the capacity of antimicrobial compounds because of forming a controlled release system. Although there are still some safety concerns about nanotechnology application in food, it can be considered as a promising solution to provide antimicrobials with improved performances for food industries.