Nanomaterials applications in food and agriculture sectors is increasing providing challenging and innovative opportunities. For human safety perspectives, the need to develop specific tools for ingested nanomaterials (NMs) has been highlighted by several national and international regulatory bodies, such as EFSA and ISO.

In particular, great attention is facing towards the NMs fate in gastrointestinal environment after oral ingestion.

ISS, in collaboration with IIT and EcamRicert, is developing a new OECD Guidance Document aimed to establish conceptual framework and procedures for determining NMs fate in a simulated in vitro intestinal environment.

It is a bi- step approach that sequentially combines investigation of:

• NMs fate in gastro-intestinal fluids along the different GIT compartments (mouth, stomach and intestine),
• NMs internalization/translocation through the intestinal barrier of digested NMs.

Definition of the most suitable analytical methods for both steps is also considered. Both steps will be performed using in vitro models. Consolidation of the GD scientific background is supported by EU through the Nanoharmony project and at national level by the Italian Ministry of Health.

After a general introduction, the session will report activities performed so far for the three main pillars (simulated digestion, uptake/translocation trough the intestinal barrier, analytical detection) of the proposed approach.