Two words that are unlikely to appear in a supermarket near you any time soon. But not because nanotechnology has no application in food - far from it!
The reason that the food industry is unlikely to be advertising the widespread applications of nanotechnology, according to Dr. Frans Kampers, of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, is because both the scientists developing the technologies and the food industry that could reap the benefits, are exercising the cautionary principle and ensuring that effective risk management applied. Experience that has told them how reluctant consumers can be to accept new technologies on their plates.
However, as Kampers explained in his Albert Franks Memorial Lecture, organised by the Institute of Nanotechnology in London in January this year, the potential applications are many and we as consumers should not be too eager to dismiss them.
For a good understanding of how nanotechnology can be put to good use in foods, I cannot stress enough that Kampers' presentation is a must-see, even for nano-sceptics. Thus, for once, I am not going to repackage the information in an easily digestible condensed format. I am just going to tell you where to find the information and let you go see for yourself. What the Institute of Nanotechnology have done is to present the webcast of the event alongside Kampers' own slides, which makes an accessible enough format in its own right. I also recommend you don't switch off till the very end - as always, the questions raised by the audience are often as informative as the rest of the lecture. In this case, concerns raised by a lady from the UK's organics watchdog, the Soil Association
If you still feel hungry for knowledge, CAB Abstracts has been storing papers specifically relating to 'Biosensors and Biological Nanotechnology' under the unique 'CabiCode' WW900 since June 2002. As a result, some extremely good discussions on the subject have been made very easy to find. I recommend the search string (WW900 AND QQ*):cc AND (nano*):su, which, as of today, yields 30 records. My personal favourite is Weiss et al.'s 2006 Scientific Status Summary for the Institute of Food Technologists. This review, published in the Journal of Food Science, addresses all the applications Kampers highlights in his presentation; and a few more. However, back in 2006, clearly optimism reigned supreme and the precautionary principle Kampers describes in 2008 is noticeably absent.
And that's enough from me. Over to you, Dr. Kampers!
Hi,
In feature nanos has great demand.So, within a few years, I guess there is going to be an increasing demand for nano-labelling. I guess people will also want to protect themselves from "hazardous nanoparticles....
Posted by: x-ray fluorescence | February 02, 2009 at 08:10 AM