Six open questions about the migration of engineered nano-objects from polymer-based food-contact materials: a review

Abstract

The use of nanomaterials in food-contact applications has created enormous interest in recent years. The potential migration of engineered nano-objects (ENOs) from food-contact materials (FCMs) is one of the most important concerns regarding potential human exposure to ENOs and health risks. Current research focusing on FCMs has often reached inconsistency regarding migration of ENOs. The scope of this critical review is to give a concise overview of the most relevant aspects of the subject, and to identify and discuss the major open questions in relation to migration of ENOs from FCMs. This includes the very fundamental questions whether ENOs can migrate from FCMs at all and what the potential release mechanisms of ENOs could be. The inconsistency of findings from experimental studies is highlighted based on the example of silver nanoparticle migration from polymer-based FCMs. Challenges in the detection and characterisation of ENOs in migration studies and the suitability of the most frequently used analytical techniques are discussed. Further, this review questions the suitability of standard food simulants and migration test conditions for FCMs as well as of conventional mathematical migration models. Considerations regarding the risk for consumers associated with migrating ENOs from FCMs are discussed. ARTICLE HISTORY

ZnO Nanostructures in Active Antibacterial Food Packaging: Preparation Methods, Antimicrobial Mechanisms, Safety Issues, Future Prospects, and Challenges

“…[120] It has been highly recommended to consider the six main factors dealing with nanomaterial migration from food contact materials including migration rate, mechanism of migration, how to analyze the trace, how to predict migration modeling, appropriate food simulant, and risk of the migration. [121] Such factors tend to enlighten all scenarios involved in migration, safety, and possibility to mitigate or address the side-effects.…”

Kontaminanten aus Lebensmittelverpackungen

“…Die Problematik der Bewertung von Nanomaterialien wurde von der EFSA [22] diskutiert und besteht einerseits in der Präzision der analytischen Methoden, um eine Freisetzung und Bioverfügbarkeit von nanoskaligen Stoffen ausschließen zu können, zum anderen im Fehlen eines Schwellenwerts, unterhalb dessen keine toxikologischen Bedenken für diese Stoffe bestehen. Die Bewertung erfordert daher eine fallspezifische Betrachtung, die vom Übergang der Nanomaterialien ins Lebensmittel sowie ihrem Verhalten im Körper, d. h. ihrer Bioverfügbarkeit in partikulärer oder löslicher Form, abhängig ist [43].…”

Behavior of silver nanoparticles and ions in food simulants and low fat cow milk under migration conditions

“…The literature has shown inconsistency about the migration of NPs from nano-based FCMs. The open questions regarding the migration of NPs from nano-based FCMs has been reviewed in our previous study (Jokar et al 2016). One of the challenges relates to the suitability of conventional food simulants and migration tests conditions for nano-based FCMs, which was discussed extensively in question number 4 in our review paper.…”

“…The migration of Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) from polymer-based FCMs has been studied extensively in recent years which can be explained by the relatively frequent use of Ag (as antimicrobial agent) in FCMs and, on the other, with the fact that Ag can be relatively easily analysed by spICP-MS and electron microscopy (Jokar et al 2016). Several studies evidenced migration of AgNPs from FCMs into food simulants (von Goetz et al 2013;Echegoyen & Nerín 2013;Artiaga et al 2015;Mackevica et al 2016;Ramos et al 2016).…”