Nanotechnology – A shelf life

extension strategy
for Fruits and Vegetables
Wenchao Liu, Min Zhang & Bhesh Bhandari (2019)
Journal - Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition

PRESENTED BY :- VIVEK MISHRA

1560135
IMTH9 - B
 Why Nanomaterials ?
• Due to the beneficial unique attributes such as larger surface-to-volume ratio,
broad-spectrum antibacterial properties and high-efficiency barrier properties,
nonmaterial can be considered as feasible solution to overcome the
disadvantages of traditional preservation techniques.

• Nonmaterial, which are prepared by a ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’ method, refer

to materials in which at least one dimension of the structure is in nanoscale

• It has also been demonstrated that combined nonmaterial with other

preservation treatments can have a synergistic effect in prolonging shelf life of
harvested products
 Unique attributes of Nanomaterial
Barrier Property

• Composites with the inclusion of particulate nonmaterial

generally have better ‘quantum mechanics’ properties, such
as enhanced barrier properties

• With the help of a novel circular casting system, Cheng et al.

(2016) produced a degradable nanocomposite film using
guar gum (GG)-nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC).

• The addition of nanocrystalline cellulose changed the

inherent pore morphology of guar gum film, and the whole
morphology of blended films was dense and tortuous.
Mechanical Property

• Mechanical properties of nanocomposite materials are

enhanced mainly due to
(1) the favourable interactions, e.g. hydrogen bonds and
ionic interactions, between nanoparticles with matrix and
nanoparticles with nanoparticles
(2) reinforcing effect of stress transfer at the interface of
nanoparticle-matrix

• Addition of cellulose nanoparticles to alginate biopolymer

matrix improved the mechanical properties of the composite
significantly
• The cellulose nanoparticles were evenly distributed in
composite materials owing to have similar polysaccharide
structures with alginate biopolymer matrix.
Photo catalytic Property
Anti-bacterial property

• Antibacterial nanomaterials can extend the shelf life of fruits and

vegetables by inhibiting the reproduction of microorganisms and
killing individual microorganisms.

• Nano antibacterial materials can be classified into two types:

a. Metal ion type and
b. Oxide photo catalytic type

• Based on Contact reaction theory

 High efficient application of
Nanomaterials

• Nanotechnology related Intelligent Label

System

• Nanotechnology related Detection Method

• Nanotechnology related Active Packaging

Intelligent label system
 Oxygen Indicator

• Contained nano titanium dioxide, Colored ion-paired methylene

blue dye, glycerol and zein polymer (Mills and Hazafy 2008)
• Rapidly degrade the original blue color under ultraviolet
irradiation
• When exposed to oxygen, it could gradually recover to blue color,
and, the rate of blue color recovery had a positive correlation to
oxygen content.

• Opto-electrical oxygen sensor which containing ion-pairing of

methylene blue, dodecyl sulfate, and nano titanium dioxide, to an
electrical circuit to detect air leakage in packaged products (Suman et
al. 2012)
 Detection Method
Microbial Detection

• Gold nanoparticle based immune-sensor for quantitative analysis of

Gram-positive bacteria ( Verdoodt et al. 2017 )

• Graphene-wrapped copper oxide-cysteine hierarchical structure based

electrochemical immunosensor was fabricated to detect Escherichia coli
O157: H7 (Pandey et al. 2017)

• By studying the contact angle, analyzing the microstructure of the

nanocomposite, detecting the morphological characterization of the
bioelectrode and evaluating the electrochemical characterization, the
authors found that this type of electrochemical immunosensor had a
large active surface area and good conductivity, resulting in the
improved sensitivity and selectivity
Detection of Structure

• Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a typical and widely studied

nanoscale detection method.
• can realize single molecule imaging with high resolution
• nanocomposite coating that contained chitosan and nano-SiO2 to
prolong the shelf-life of Chinese cherry and improve the hardness
of storage products. (Xin et al. 2017)
• The results showed that the nanocomposite was effective in
extending the shelf life of Chinese cherries by protecting pectin
chains from depolymerization.
• Other example of application of AFM in polysaccharides
nanostructure analysis of fruits and vegetables were found in
strawberry fruits, jujubes, apple, apricot fruits and mushroom
 Active Packaging
• Active packaging is an effective technique for shelf life extension
of fruits and vegetables by virtue of active components in
materials such as :
antimicrobial compounds,
antioxidant components and
ethylene removers

Antioxidant Films
• Antioxidant activity of nano-biofilm by using poly (lactic acid)
(PLA) as a substrate, then mixing thymol with different
concentrations of montmorillonite. (Ramos et al. 2014)
• Better mechanical propertie and oxygen barrier rate
 The effects of a nano chitosan-based coating loaded with Zataria multiflora on
the shelf-life and antioxidant activities of harvested cucumber. (Mohammadi, Hashemi,
and Hosseini 2016)

• The weight ratio of chitosan to Z. multiflora essential oil was 1:0.25

• The nano chitosan-Z. multiflora hybrids obtained a satisfactory encapsulation

efficiency and loading capacity.

• After stored under 10 ± 1 C for 21 days, the product with chitosan-Z. multiflora
hybrids (T2) had the best quality in comparing the cucumber with only
nanochitosan coating (T1) or only distilled water treatment (Control).

• The recorded pictures of cucumber state during storage are shown in Figure in
the next slide.

• Their results indicated that nanochitosan-based coating loaded with Zataria

multiflora could avoid cucumber decay and improved the antioxidant activity of
cucumber products.
 Conclusion
• It has been found that nanotechnology-related preservation strategies can
effectively prolong the shelf life of fruits and vegetables and better ensure
the products quality during storage.
• Besides, nanoscale detection has a great potential in assisting researchers to
investigate the mechanism of quality degradation behavior of fruits and
vegetables during storage.
• It should be emphasized here that nanotechnology-related preservation
strategies for fruits and vegetables shelf life extension are still in laboratory
research stage, and there are many challenges need to overcome before
large-scale industrial applications.
• It is possible that nano-materials may migrate into fruits and vegetables
through the effects of absorption, dissolution and diffusion in the process of
contact with fruits and vegetables, however the safety attributes of
nanomaterials have not been fully understood.
• Consequently, legal aspects and safety concerns need to be taken into
account in future researches.
 References

Wenchao Liu, Min Zhang & Bhesh Bhandari (2019): Nanotechnology – A shelf life
extension strategy for fruits and vegetables, Critical Reviews in Food Science and
Nutrition,
DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2019.1589415
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2019.1589415