Food Toxicology Conference 2021

Application and Gastrointestinal Fate of Edible Organic or Inorganic Nanoparticles in Foods 

 

Edible nanoparticles are increasingly being utilized in industries and the food industry to enhance the nutritional attributes, safety, shelf life, appearance, and texture of foods.  A wide range of inorganic (e.g., titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, zinc oxide, and silver) and organic (e.g., lipid, protein, and carbohydrate) nanoparticles is being used in these applications, which vary in their composition, physical state, shape, dimensions, aggregation state, and surface charge.  There is concern from consumers, industry, and regulators about the potential risks associated with ingesting these food-grade nanoparticles.  Consequently, a great deal of research is focused on understanding the gastrointestinal fate of different kinds of food nanoparticles, as well as their potential for causing chronic or acute toxicity.  In this presentation, the application and potential toxicity of organic and inorganic food nanoparticles is reviewed, with special emphasis on the lipid nanoparticles found in food-grade nanoemulsions. 

 

David Julian McClements is a Distinguished Professor at the Department of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts, an Adjunct Professor at Zhejiang Gongshang University, and a visiting Professor at the School of Public Health at Harvard University.  He specializes in the areas of food biopolymers and colloids, with a special emphasis on using structural design principles to improve the quality, safety, shelf-life and nutritional attributes of foods McClements received his Ph.D. in Food Science (1989) at the University of Leeds (United Kingdom) in ultrasonic spectrometry.  He then did Post-Doctoral Research at the University of Leeds, University of California (Davis) and University College Cork (Ireland). McClements is the sole author of Future Foods: How Modern Science is Transforming the Way We Eat (2019), three editions of “Food Emulsions: Principles, Practice and Techniques” (1999, 2005, 2015) and “Nanoparticle- and Microparticle-based Delivery Systems: Encapsulation, Protection and Release of Active Components” (2014), co-author of “Advances in Food Colloids” (1996) with Prof. Eric Dickinson, and co-editor of “Developments in Acoustics and Ultrasonics”, "Understanding and Controlling the Microstructure of Complex Foods”, “Designing Functional Foods”, “Oxidation in Foods and Beverages (Volumes 1 and 2)”, “Encapsulation and Delivery Systems for Food Ingredients and Nutraceuticals” and “Nanoemulsions”.  In addition, he has published over 1000 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals (H-index 142, > 80,000 citations, Google Scholar), 12 patents, as well as numerous book chapters and conference proceedings.  Prof. McClements has previously received awards from the American Chemical Society, American Oil Chemists Society, Society of Chemical Industry (UK), International Union of Food Science and Technology, Institute of Food Technologists, and University of Massachusetts in recognition of his scientific achievements.  Dr. McClements is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society (Agricultural and Food Division), and Institute of Food Technologists. His research has been funded by grants from the United States Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, US Department of Commerce, NASA, and the food industry.  He has secured funding worth over $12 million as a PI or co-PI while working at UMASS.  He is the editor of Annual Reviews in Food Science and Technology, and a member of the editorial boards of a number of other journals.  He has organized numerous workshops, symposia, and international conferences in the field of food colloids, emulsions, and delivery system

 

U.S. Food and Drug Administration

A Regulatory and Science Perspective on Food Ingredients and Food Contact Substances Containing Nanomaterials

 

Nanotechnology can be used in a wide array of products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including food ingredients and food contact substances. Food ingredients and food contact substances containing nanomaterials can exhibit different chemical or physical properties, or biological effects, which may affect their safety in comparison to analogous food ingredients or food contact substances that do not contain nanomaterials. FDA has developed guidances to the industry to address issues including the regulatory status, safety, effectiveness, performance, quality, and public health impact of food ingredients and food contact substances containing nanomaterials. This presentation will cover the overarching framework for FDA’s approach to the regulation of nanotechnology products, as well as the guidance on significant manufacturing changes for food ingredients and food contact substances that are already in the market. 

 

Dr Raymond Briñas has been a review chemist at the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) since 2015.  His regulatory review experience includes the safety evaluation of food contact substances, medical devices, and bioengineered foods. He is also a member of US FDA’s nanotechnology task force, which is a group involved with determining the regulatory approaches that encourage the development of safe and effective FDA-regulated products containing nanomaterials. Prior to joining the US FDA, Dr Briñas was involved in nanotechnology research, which included oxygen nano-sensor development for imaging applications (University of Pennsylvania), site-specific labeling of proteins using gold nanoparticles for structural biology applications (Brookhaven National Laboratory), and cancer vaccine development using gold nanoparticle scaffold (National Cancer Institute).

 

Dr Briñas is a synthetic organic chemist by training and holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut.

 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

Species-Independent Nanosensor Tools for Next-Generation Agriculture

 

Innovative approaches are urgently required to alleviate the growing pressure on agriculture to meet the rising demand for food. A key challenge for plant biology is to bridge the notable knowledge gap between our detailed understanding of model plants grown under laboratory conditions and the agriculturally important crops cultivated in fields or production facilities.  This has been the recent focus of my laboratory at MIT and the research center in Singapore that collaborators and I have formed, the Disruptive and Sustainable Technology for Agricultural Precision or DISTAP.  This presentation will highlight new sensor technologies and new scholarship that that addresses these gaps in knowledge.  Examples to specific plant stresses, including light, heat, mechanical wounding and pathogens are discussed.  We also discuss sensors to address problems in food security including arsenic uptake and contamination in rice, and outline future directions for how nanosensor tools in general can bring about next generation agriculture.    

 

Professor Michael S. Strano is currently the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received is B.S from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware both in Chemical Engineering. He was a post doctoral research fellow at Rice University in the departments of Chemistry and Physics under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley. From 2003 to 2007, Michael was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before moving to MIT. His research focuses on biomolecule/nanoparticle interactions and the surface chemistry of low dimensional systems, nano-electronics, nanoparticle separations, and applications of vibrational spectroscopy to nanotechnology.

 

Michael is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including a 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a 2006 Beckman Young Investigator Award, the 2006 Coblentz Award for Molecular Spectroscopy, the Unilever Award from the American Chemical Society in 2007 for excellence in colloidal science, and the 2008 Young Investigator Award from the Materials Research Society and the 2008 Allen P. Colburn Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. From 2014 to 2015 he served as member of the Defense Science Study Group, and is currently an editor for the journals Carbon and Protocols in Chemical Biology. Michael was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2017 and the recipient of the Acrovos Professional Progress Award in 2019.

 

Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)

Recyclable Mono-polyolefin Food Packaging

 

Food packaging plays a crucial role in securing food safety and reducing food waste. However, the widely used plastic food packaging in the current market is non-compostable and recycling laminated multilayer plastic packaging, which consists of various types of plastic layers with specific function, is next to impossible. As a result, single used plastic packaging is one of the main sources of plastic pollution both on land and in oceans. At IMRE, my group has been working on silicate/polymer composite high barrier coating against both gas and water vapor. The developed barrier coating has been applied onto polyolefin films to produce recyclable mono-polyolefin packaging successfully. In order to further extend the shelf life of foods, oxygen scavenger based nanostructured Fe@carbon has been developed and incorporated into polyolefin to produce recyclable mono-polyolefin oxygen scavenging packaging. 

 

Dr Li Xu is a Senior Scientist at IMRE, A*STAR and has been leading a research team dedicating to hybrid polymeric materials for coating and packaging application. The main research focus of his team is on design and synthesis of high performance polymer materials and inorganic fillers and incorporation of the functional fillers into polymer materials with controlled filler distribution and tuned interlayer bonding between filler and polymer matrix to produce advanced polymeric materials. Process-structure-property-performance relationship is also the research focus of his team. As an Adjunct Associate Professor of Food Science and Technology Department, NUS, he supervises graduate students in investigating the performance of polymeric materials for food packaging application using model foods.

 

Dr Li Xu and his team have developed technologies for production of silicate polymer composite with excellent oxygen barrier, oxygen scavenging and antimicrobial performance. In order to explore those technologies for food packaging application, at IMRE, he has initiated and led the Industrial Coating and Packaging (ICAP) consortium along the whole industry value chain, including food company, packaging converter, plastic film manufacturer and materials supplier. The oxygen barrier technology has been transferred to industry companies and integrated into industry production successfully to produce recyclable food packaging. Besides ICAP consortium, he has also successfully engaged industry company through one-to-one joint project to develop packaging products.