Engineered Nanomaterials for Improving the Nutritional Quality of Agricultural Products: A Review
Yi Sun, Guikai Zhu, Weichen Zhao, Yaqi Jiang, Qibin Wang, Quanlong Wang, Yukui Rui, Peng Zhang, Li Gao
Abstract
To ensure food safety, the current agricultural development has put forward requirements for improving nutritional quality and reducing the harmful accumulation of agricultural chemicals. Nano-enabled sustainable agriculture and food security have been increasingly explored as a new research frontier. Nano-fertilizers show the potential to be more efficient than traditional fertilizers, reducing the amount used while ensuring plant uptake, supplying the inorganic nutrients needed by plants, and improving the process by which plants produce organic nutrients. Other agricultural uses of nanotechnology affect crop productivity and nutrient quality in addition to nano-fertilizers. This article will review the research progress of using nanomaterials to improve nutritional quality in recent years and point out the focus of future research.