The food packaging industry is constantly evolving, having the important role of providing safe and high-quality food and drinks. Deaths and illnesses caused by the consumption of food contaminated with pathogenic agents have increased greatly, especially in developing countries. In recent years, especially with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been found that viral infections remain the main health problem around the world. For this reason, researchers have the responsibility to find new packaging solutions that guarantee food safety and security. Thus, it has become necessary to create antimicrobial packaging that would meet these conditions. Among the methods used, the incorporation of metallic nanoparticles has proven to be very effective, due to their special physico-chemical, optical and biological properties that these nanoparticles give to the packaging. These properties can be exploited in order to obtain materials with outstanding qualities, which will thus satisfy the demand of consumers of having foods with higher quality and with a longer shelflife. This work aims to briefly present the most used antimicrobial nanoparticles, their properties, the synthesis methods used and their effect on the foods they contain.