LAUSR

The advent of nanotechnology has increasingly influenced all research fields covering also the food area. The awareness of the peculiar properties of matter at the nanoscale level has stimulated investigations down to submicron (less than 1 μm) and nanosize (1–100 nm). The appealing possibility to evidence interactions among nanostructures in foodstuff is strictly related to both functional and organoleptic properties of food. Besides the most common techniques known well before the advent of nanotechnology, such as light scattering and electron microscopy, Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) has come up almost ten years ago. Although the technique is new, the basic principles rely on a well consolidated theoretical knowledge, such as the Stokes-Einstein and the dynamic scattering equations. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the techniques commonly used to characterize food structures focusing the attention to NTA. Therefore, a literature survey is provided taking into account the many different situations that can occur in food products, spanning from emulsions and protein aggregates to individual nanoparticles, either added to improve food properties or derived from food contamination. A comparison of NTA with the classical dynamic light scattering (DLS) is also included, focusing the attention on the strength and weakness of both techniques. The current increasing interest in NTA is foreseen to expand its use also in food area, by stimulating research in the perspective of a conscious food managing approach.