**2. Applications of Antimicrobial Silver Nanoparticles in the Food Industry**

Microbial food spoilage is a major global concern that can reduce the shelf life of food while increasing the risk of foodborne diseases. In this framework, the use of well-known potent antimicrobial agents such as silver nanoparticles constitutes an interesting approach. An overview of the effectiveness of silver nanoparticles to inhibit the growth of different microorganisms is shown in Table 1.


**Table 1.** Recompilation of studies about the antimicrobial effects of Ag-NPs against foodborne pathogens.


**Table 1.** *Cont*.


**Table 1.** *Cont*.

Among other relevant results, Silvan et al. [33] demonstrated the antibacterial effect of Ag-NPs against multi-drug resistant (MDR) *Campylobacter* strains isolated from the chicken food chain and clinical patients. In another study, nanoparticles synthesized through *Forsythia suspensa* fruit water extract showed antibacterial activities against the most common foodborne pathogens, including *Listeria monocytogenes*, *Vibrio parahaemolyticus*, *Escherichia coli* O157:H7 and *Salmonella typhimurium* [36]. Similarly, the Ag-NPs synthesized from jack fruit seeds showed an antibacterial effect against *E. coli* and *S. typhimurium* [35]. The toxic effect of Ag-NPs synthesized using a bacterial exopolysaccharide as a reducing and stabilizing agent against various food pathogens (*L. monocytogenes*, *Aspergillus* spp. and *Penicillum* spp.) was also demonstrated [31]. Based on these promising results and in order to improve the shelf life and safety of food, there are various food preservation and safety strategies in which Ag-NPs have been employed (or proposed to be employed) in the food industry (Figure 2). Specifically, in this section, we report on the last studies assessing the use of silver nanoparticles in food processing and food packaging, and also the current regulation about it.

**Figure 2.** Classification of the use of Ag-NPs as antimicrobials in the food industry (adapted from Singh et al. [39]).
