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Review
. 2025;19(2):241-256.
doi: 10.2174/1872210517666230825100347.

A Comprehensive Update on Nanotechnology in Functional Food Developments: Recent Updates, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

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Review

A Comprehensive Update on Nanotechnology in Functional Food Developments: Recent Updates, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Sumel Ashique et al. Recent Pat Nanotechnol. 2025.

Abstract

The food business makes extensive use of lipophilic bioactive substances derived from plants, such as phytosterols, antimicrobials, antioxidants, ω3 fatty acids, tastes, and countless other constituennts. The preponderance of these bioactive substances, nevertheless, is just about unsolvable in hydric solution and unbalanced at a particular eco-friendly provocation, such as sunlight, temperature, and oxygen, in construction, transference, storage, and employment, for example, icy, chilling, desiccation, warm air dealing out, or machine-driven agitation. According to this standpoint, there are high-tech hitches that must be resolved to inform functionality for the social figure due to the lipophilic bioactive dearth of solubilization, bioavailability, and permanency. This leads to failure in commercialization and quality enhancement. Nanotechnology can generally be used to manufacture nano-kinds of stuff like nano-emulsion, nanoparticles, nanostructured materials, and nanocomposites. The creation of functional foods has attracted a huge interest as our consideration of their affiliation with nourishment and human health has grown. There are still a number of problems that need to be fixed, such as finding useful substances, figuring out ideal intake amounts, and fashioning apt food conveyance systems in addition to product compositions. In several of these areas, new methods and materials developed through nanotechnology have the potential to offer fresh explanations. The present article provides a thorough examination of nanotechnologies employed in the development of functional foods. It outlines the current patterns and forthcoming outlooks of sophisticated nanomaterials in the food industry, with particular emphasis on their applications in processing, packaging, safety, and preservation. The utilization of nanotechnologies in the food industry can improve the "bioavailability, taste, texture, and consistency of food products". This is accomplished by manipulating the particle size, potential cluster formation, and surface charge of food nanomaterials. Furthermore, this paper examines the utilization of nano-delivery systems for administering nutraceuticals, the cooperative effects of nanomaterials in safeguarding food, and the implementation of nano-sensors in intelligent food packaging to monitor the quality of stored food. Additionally, the customary techniques employed for evaluating the influence of nanomaterials on biological systems are also addressed. By examining patents, we aim to gain insights into the trends and innovations driving this field forward and assess its implications on the food industry and society.

Keywords: Functional foods; bioactive compounds; delivery systems; hydric solution.; nanoencapsulation; nanotechnology.

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