The engineered nanoparticles in food chain: potential toxicity and effects

Abstract

Nanomaterials include dispersing materials containing structural elements (grains, crystallites, blocks, clusters, etc.), due to their nano dimensions acquire qualitatively new functional and operational characteristics, offering several biomedical and technical advances over their bulk analogues. Taking into the consideration the fact that the impact of nanoparticles (NPs) to a living organism through the food chain is extremely important and have not been studied in detail yet, in this review we aimed to show the effect of different NPs towards terrestrial food chain, aquatic ecosystem, microorganisms and etc. Understanding and managing the potential risks associated with the use of nanoscale objects serves as a guide for developing new methods, tools, and concepts in order to determine how new engineering nanoparticles will interact with living organisms in the food chain and environmental systems. It is assumed that these methods will fundamentally differ and challenge the existing research and testing methodologies.