Nanosilver-Enabled Food Storage Container Tradeoffs: Environmental Impacts Versus Food Savings Benefit, Informed by Literature

Globally, thousands of tons of food are lost each year due to spoilage and degraded quality. This loss is a current critical issue that must be addressed to ensure adequate food supply for the growing world population; the use of technology and regulatory practices are avenues to a solution. One considered approach is the reduction of the microorganism population on the surface of food products to delay spoilage through the use of antimicrobials. One current method is the use of the antimicrobial properties of nanoscale silver (nAg) particles to prolong the freshness of stored food by reducing the bacteria present. Nanoscale silver-enabled food storage containers present a potential solution to the food loss problem; nevertheless, their environmental and human health effects have been questioned by the scientific community. Literature is used to generate data for the life cycle impact assessment of these types of products and their corresponding environmental effects. The benefits of nAg-enabled food storage containers are considered with respect to their potential to extend the shelf life of stored food and prevent food spoilage. The results illustrate that the environmental effects of nano-enabling food storage containers with silver is small (when the initial silver concentration is relatively low, less than 1% by mass) compared with the overall environmental effects of food storage containers and also relatively small compared with the environmental effects of producing the stored food. This finding suggests that the added environmental burden of nano-enabling food storage containers may be small when compared with the environmental burden of food losses. (C) 2018 SETAC