A review of the potentials of metal-organic nanostructures in food safety

Food safety has always been a major global challenge for human health. The demand for sustainability, product safety improvement and high quality standards have always been important in all areas of the biological sciences such as the food industry, which requires close monitoring and continuously throughout the food supply chain. In this area, the suitable and satisfactory food packaging in the industry is the basis for maintaining and preserving proper and suitable quality and safety in food. Despite the industry's efforts to produce safe products, food products may become contaminated during the process or from contaminated raw materials. Therefore, to solve the problems and defects related to food safety, several strategies and approaches have been considered and designed. Among various pathways the use of metal-organic frameworks is a new opportunity and challenges to ensure the quality and safety of food. Metal-organic frameworks are known as fundamental class of porous nonmaterial which has unique physical and chemical properties promising in a food safety program. These nanoporus materials have recently attracted a lot of attentions and have found their way into various industries, including the food industry, and have shown great potential for practical development because of a wide range of applications in diverse fields. This article tries to emphasize and introduce this technology with a brief overview of the use of metal-organic frameworks in the food industry in three subsets of packaging, storage and cleaning, and their applications in this industry and the advantages and benefits which come with using it.

In summary, it can be said that MOFs have shown exciting potential in the field of food safety and have shown all their efficiency through the ability to be used in different parts of the process. Emerging MOFs or composite-based MOFs have been considered as a practical coating in intelligent food packaging, for the controlled release of preservatives and to monitor food safety. Therefore, these materials need to have excellent adsorption and stability properties; Be further developed for use in packaging. MOFs have also been shown to be effective in eliminating hazardous substances in the food supply chain. Therefore, the need to synthesize new multifunctional MOFs to remove contaminants is essential. Finally, while MOFs are a promising substance to help improve food safety at various stages of the food chain; However, precise control of the pore size and volume of these frameworks for specific applications is still a challenge, so more attention needs to be paid to achieving high quality MOFs for use in food safety. Further research is also needed on the toxicity of MOFs.