Understanding the Dynamic Hazard Potential of Nanomaterials in Response to Material Transformation along the Food Value Chain

拟议的研究计划旨在了解纳米材料(NMS)在食品加工、烹饪、储存和随后消费的生物加工条件下的变化所产生的动态危险潜力。这项研究计划的长期目标是开发预测性毒理学、基于NMS的安全设计的缓解策略以及基于科学证据的监管控制。目前食品和农业领域纳米技术应用的市场份额估计为0.9万亿美元。NMS在农业(纳米农药、兽药)、食品接触材料(包装和加工表面)、食品加工(防结块剂)和食品添加剂中开发了新的功能特性，以改善食品的有机感官和保质期特性。然而，人类接触NMS的可能性加上NMS通过口服途径进入的生物学后果基本上未知，这引发了人们对应用于食品和农业中的NMS的安全性的担忧。关于NMS对与胃肠道相关的细胞和组织的毒性，以及NMS在食品生产、加工、储存和消费价值链上的转化，存在着显著的知识空白。假设NMS在食品中应用的危害潜力将沿着其价值链发生变化，这是由于食品加工过程中普遍存在的环境条件引起的物质转化以及NMS在体内的过渡。拟议项目的短期目标是(在五年内)通过开发在食品和农业部门应用的大量生产的非金属化合物(二氧化硅、二氧化钛、氧化锌、埃洛石粘土、纤维素和银)及其变种的组成和组合库来消除上述知识差距，对这些非金属化合物在食品加工、储存和消费条件下产生的变种进行表征，对这些非金属化合物的物理化学性质进行表征，并利用与胃肠道有关的体外和体内模型研究其危险概况。来自NMS的物理化学特征及其生物结果的数据将用于计算模型，以生成NM的性质-活性关系和危险等级。综合从这些研究中获得的知识，预计将对应用于粮食和农业的环境卫生措施进行现实和相关的风险评估。

The proposed research program aims to understand the dynamic hazard potential arising from transformation of nanomaterials (NMs) in response to conditions of food processing, cooking, storage and biological processing ensuing consumption. The long term goal of this research program is to develop predictive toxicology, mitigation strategies based on safe-by-design of NMs and regulatory controls based on scientific evidence. Current market share for nanotechnology applications in food and agriculture sector is estimated to be 0.9 trillion USD. Novel functional properties imparted by NMs are exploited in, agriculture (nano-sized pesticides, veterinary medicines), food contact materials (packaging and processing surfaces), food processing (anti-caking agents) and food additives to improve the organo-leptic and shelf-life properties of food. However, possibility of human exposure to NMs added with the largely unknown biological consequences of NMs entering through oral route raises concerns over safety of NMs applied in food and agriculture. There are prominent knowledge gaps on the toxicity of NMs to the cells and tissues of relevance to gastro intestinal tract, and the transformation of NMs along the value chain of food production, processing, storage, and consumption. It is hypothesized that the hazard potential of NMs applied in food will change along its value chain because of material transformation caused by environmental conditions prevailing the food processing and transition of NMs through the body. The short-term objectives (within five years) of the proposed project are to address the above mentioned knowledge gaps by developing compositional and combinatorial libraries of, high volume production NMs with application in food and agriculture sector (Silicon dioxide, Titanium dioxide, Zinc oxide, halloysite clay, cellulose and silver) and their variants generated by subjecting NMs to conditions of food processing, storage and consumption, characterization of these NMs for physicochemical properties and studying their hazard profile using in vitro and in vivo models relevant to gastro intestinal tract (GI tract). The data from physico-chemical characterization of NMs and their biological outcome will be used for computational modelling for generating property-activity relationships and hazard ranking of NM. Integrating knowledge gained from these studies is envisaged to yield realistic and relevant risk assessment of ENMs applied in food and agriculture.