FCT- International Nanotechnology
Laboratory project call
Project NANOPACKSAFER
Portugal-Spain
International Nanotechnology Laboratory Nanotechnology Projects Call
NANOPACKSAFER: NANO-engineered PACKaging systems for improving quality,
SAFEty and health characteristics of foods
Subject
:Nanotechnologies - 2. Security and Food Quality Control
Coordinator:
Lorenzo Pastrana
Facultade de
Ciencias de Ourense, Universidade de Vigo
Participants:
#1 Facultade
de Ciencias de Ourense, Universidade de Vigo
#2 IBB-Institute
for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Centre for Biological Engineering
#3 Centro de
Física da Universidade do Minho (CFUM)
#4
Universidade de Aveiro, Dept, Química
#5
Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Facultad de Medicina. Depto Bioquímica y Biología
Molecular III
#6 Novel
Materials and Nanotechnology. IATA-CSIC
#7
Universidad del Pais Vasco (UPV/EHU)
Abstract:
Nanotechnology
expectations for improving the safety and quality of foods are high. Food
technologists expect Nanotechnology to revolutionize food production and to
establish new ways of controlling and assuring food safety from farm to fork.
Nowadays, food safety and quality is provided by macroscopic technologies,
where processing, storage and distribution are controlled by conventional
methods (e.g. HACCP). However, there are steps which are currently
non-controllable leading to important quality and safety losses. This proposal
aims at developing nanotechnology-based food protection strategies by providing
active packaging systems (through nanoengineered edible coatings, non-edible
films and/or nanoparticles) which will proactively act to maintain or even to
increase food quality, safety and health impact of foods from production to
consumption.
Today´s
packaging systems provide in general a passive protection, acting only as a
physical barrier (to e.g. UV light, gases, micro-organisms, mechanical damage)
which is insufficient in many cases to guarantee the required quality levels.
Recently, important steps were given in the development of active packaging
systems at the micro-scale, providing a glance of what can be done with
nanotechnology (e.g. melting properties, seasoning delivery, moisture and
microbiological spoilage control). To achieve the goal of outermost protection
given by nanoengineered active packaging solutions, this proposal includes the
integrated development of: i) Edible nanofilms and nanoparticles and their
production systems (U.P.V., IATA-CSIC, U.Minho); ii) Non-edible films and their
production systems (U. Vigo, U.P.V., IATA-CSIC, U.Minho); iii) Toxicological
compliances and bioavailability (U.Complutense); iv) Instrumental analyses for
film/particle characterization and the detection, quantification and structural
analysis of nanocomponents (U.Aveiro, U.Vigo) and v) Computational simulation
and data analysis for the validation and establishment of production and
control systems at the nanoscale (U.Minho).
NanoPAckSafer Power Point Short Presentation
CF UM Nanopacksafer Team leader
Prof. Vasco Teixeira
GRF-Grupo de Revestimentos Funcionais
CFUM- Centro de Física da
Universidade do Minho
Universidade do Minho
4800-058 Guimarães
email: vasco@fisica.uminho.pt
http://www.fisica.uminho.pt/grf
http://vteixeira.com.sapo.pt/nanoprojects.htm
http://vteixeira.com.sapo.pt/projects.htm