Safety and Regulatory Perspectives on Nanotechnology in Food Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Nanotechnology in agri-food systems offers innovative solutions for improving food quality, extending product shelf life, or protecting crops. The use of nanomaterials, despite their potential, raises serious safety concerns related to their effects on human health and their environmental impact. Key challenges include a lack of unified regulations, limited methodologies for risk assessment, and insufficient toxicological data. It is important to develop consistent standards for evaluating and monitoring nanomaterials in food. Effective collaboration between industry, science, and regulators is essential to ensure the safe and responsible implementation of nanotechnology in the agri-food sector.

The origins of the development of nanotechnology date back to 1959, when Richard Feynman presented his famous lecture, ‘There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom.’ From this, the concept of manipulating matter at the atomic level emerged; however, it was not until the development of microscopic techniques, which enabled nanoscale research and the discovery of carbon nanotubes, that nanotechnology began to rapidly develop. In the present day, nanotechnology is being used in the agri-food sector in many ways.

This Special Issue aims to analyze the safety and toxicity of nanomaterials and assess their impacts on the environment and human health. The scope includes the characterization of analytical methods that can be used to detect and evaluate nanoparticles, new application opportunities for nanotechnology, demonstrations of how nanotechnology can affect the agri-food sector, and reviews of regulations and legislative shortcomings.

Nanotechnology is used to encapsulate bioactive compounds to increase their bioavailability in food; to encapsulate active agents with controlled release; to monitor the purity of soils, water, and air; in packaging as an alternative to plastic; in food diagnostics; and in many other ways.

We invite submissions of review articles that collect and summarize the current state of knowledge on the safety and regulatory aspects of nanomaterials used in the agri-food sector; original articles that present results of cutting-edge research on the effects of nanomaterials on food product properties, environmental behavior, and toxicity; and papers proposing new research methods for assessing the safety of nanoparticles.

Dr. Magdalena Krystyjan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• nanotechnology
• nanoparticles
• safety
• agri-food systems
• legislation