Advances in food nanotechnology

The use of nanotechnology in the food industry offers many potential benefits for consumers and manufacturers. The dimension and physico-chemical properties of materials at the nanoscale allow their inclusion in several food processes and applications showing great advantages when compared with micro- and macroscale alternatives. The benefits of applying nanotechnology have been driving the development of new and high performance materials for the food sector in areas, such as: encapsulation of compounds (using bio-based nanostructures), food safety (i.e., detection of contaminants and microorganisms and removal of chemicals from foods), and food processing (i.e., nanofiltration and enzyme immobilization). The increasing number of publications and patents shows the fast growth of this topic in the agro-food industry, which is confirmed by the significant number of companies using nanotechnology in the development of their products. Also, the acceptance of the consumers for nanotechnology-based products is of utmost importance: this will dictate if they will/should be in the market or not.This chapter addresses these issues aiming at providing an integrated perspective to reader, foreseeing that, in the next few years, government organizations, academia, and industry will need to work together to increase the acceptance of nanotechnology-based products.