ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented tensions in food supply chains showing us that the most significant risk for food security is not the availability of food but rather the access of consumers to quality food.. In the current scenario, the processing and food packaging demand rise to guarantee and monitor the condition of food during transportation, distribution, storage and the variations in the environment surrounding it. In this chapter, authors will discuss the use of nanomaterials’ applications in packaging and processing (1) as an enhancer of the physical properties of food systems (such as color, flavor, and delivery of nutrients and nutraceuticals), (2) as additives in plastics (for surface and volume modification and for reinforcement of mechanical strength, gas barriers, and antimicrobial and scavenging activity), and (3) as fillers in nanocomposites or in a colloidal nanosuspension acting as an indicator to detect microbial growth, amount of oxygen, and temperature variations. Finally, the intersection of ISO standards applied to nanomaterial terminology, measurements, and safety and nanocomposites for food science will be discussed.
