纳米保健食品安全性及研究动向

Safety and Prospects of Nanotechnology in Functional Foods

近年来纳米技术在保健食品中的应用飞速发展,研究证明其可以帮助保健食品在体内表现更好的生物活性,提高吸收率。然而,纳米材料作为一种人工制造的新的物质形态,如同转基因产品一样,人们对它的认识才刚刚开始。当保健食品中的纳米颗粒通过口服进入人体后,由于其具有的小尺寸效应和表面效应,可能会产生不同于常规保健成分的反应。然而缺乏对纳米粒子物理化学性质的全面掌握、传统毒理学测试方法并不完全适用于纳米粒子等问题阻碍着研究进展。各国对纳米技术的安全性问题的研究投入越来越多,2011年5月欧盟食品安全局刚刚公布了《纳米技术应用食品和饲料的风险评估指南》,将对评估纳米粒子在保健食品中的安全风险提供参考。

Application of nanotechnology in functional foods has been greatly developed nowadays.Nanotechnology has been used to improve the absorption rate of functional ingredients and nutrition supplements in the human body.However,the safety of nanoparticles in functional foods is still unknown.The special characteristics and properties of nanoparticles,such as size,surface area and translocation across biological membranes,might have different impacts on the human body.In this paper,an overview of potential risks for the application of nanotechnology in functional foods is summarized and the recent development trend of nanotechnology risk assessment is also updated.These investigations will provide a reference for the safety and risk evaluation of nanoparticles in functional foods.