Detection and characterization of engineered nanoparticles in food and the environment – a review

Karen Tiede (1, 2) , Alistair Boxall (1, 2, 3) , Steve Tear (4) , John Lewis (5) , Helen David (6) , Martin Hassellov (7)

1 Central Science Laboratory
2 Environment Department
3 CSL - DEFRA Central Science Laboratory
4 Physics
5 Food Safety & Quality Group
6 Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre
7 Department of Chemistry

Nanotechnology is a fast growing market and it is expected that increasingly more products will contain some sort of nanomaterial in the future. So far, little is known about the occurrence, fate and toxicity of nanoparticles. The limitations in our knowledge are partly due to the lack of methods for the detection and characterisation of engineered nanoparticles in complex media i.e. water, soil or food. This review provides an overview of the characteristics of nanoparticles that could affect nanoparticle behaviour and toxicity as well as techniques available for determining these. Important properties comprise size, shape, surface properties, aggregation state, solubility, structure and chemical make up. Methods are available that have been developed for natural nanomaterials or engineered nanomaterials in simple media which could be optimized to provide the necessary information. These include microscopy, chromatography, spectroscopy, centrifugation as well as filtration and related techniques. A combination of these is often required. There are a number of challenges that will arise when analysing environmental and food materials including extraction challenges, the presence of analytical artefacts caused by sample preparation, the problems of distinction between natural and engineered nanoparticles and the lack of reference materials. Work in the future should focus on addressing these challenges.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Karen Tiede, Alistair Boxall, Steve Tear, John Lewis, Helen David, et al.. Detection and characterization of engineered nanoparticles in food and the environment – a review. Food Additives and Contaminants, 2008, 25 (07), pp.795-821. ⟨10.1080/02652030802007553⟩. ⟨hal-00577384⟩