Inconsistent Impact of Nanoparticles on Food Chain

Nanotechnology has proved to be beneficial for its medical, ethical, mental, legal and environmental applications. It encompasses several fields, e.g., engineering, biology, chemistry, computing, material science, military applications and communications. The incumbent technology identifies unique properties of materials with dimension in the range of 1–100 nm. Though these properties yield many far-reaching societal benefits in several fields, including improved manufacturing methods, water purification systems, energy systems, physical enhancement, nanomedicine, better food production methods and nutrition, and large-scale infrastructure auto-fabrication, but they may also pose threat and risks to environment and human health demanding great concern for safety issues. To lessen the deleterious impacts of nanoparticles (NPs) on environment, especially on the food chain, it is imperative to develop potential toxicity tests, which would aid in the rapid detection of the lethal effects of NPs (screening) and epidemiologic studies must be conducted on exposed populations. The uptake, bioaccumulation, biotransformation and risks of nanomaterials (NMs) for the food crops are still unclear. Very few reports exist that provide the in-depth information regarding interaction of NMs and plant species, largely at the very early growth stages of the plants.