Applications of nanomaterials in food industry: a review

Abstract

TA nanoparticle is a small particle whose size ranges between 1 to 100 nanometres at least in one dimension. Undetectable by the human eye, nanoparticles can exhibit significantly different physical and chemical properties compared to their larger material counterparts. This is due to a very large surface area to volume ratio when compared to bulk material. When the particle size goes to nanometer range quantum mechanical effects such as quantum confinement dominate the material properties. This feature enables nanoparticles to possess unexpected optical, physical and chemical properties. Due to these unexpected properties, nanoparticles find enormous applications in various fields such as medicine, agriculture, food, energy storage, electronics, pharmaceuticals etc. In this article we concentrate on applications of nanoparticles in food industry.