Nano Foods - The Silent Revolution?

[Cronan McNamara (Creme)]

Nanotechnology is "the branch of technology that deals with dimensions and tolerances of less than 100 nanometers, especially the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules" according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

These materials are attractive to industry and researchers since nano-materials can take on significant new properties at the nano scale. For example insoluble substances may dissolve or non-electrical conducting materials may start conducting electricity.


Nanotechnologies offer solutions to major problems such as energy supply, pollutant control, sustainability, better healthcare and life quality. Cities and buildings can be built using more efficient materials. Lightweight matter sixteen times stronger than steel offers amazing possibilities for aviation and road transport. For the first time, we are altering the essential building blocks of life and this opens both great opportunity and significant risk.

The use of these nano-products may entail new hazards but there are no regulations in place to monitor this area. In the United States, for example, nanotech is not subject to any special regulations and nano-products need not even be labeled.

Largely unnoticed, hundreds of products containing nano-sized particles have already reached the food and cosmetics market. These include foods with nano food ingredients, supplements, anti-wrinkle cosmetic creams, food packaging and work surfaces that clean themselves. See the Nanotechnology consumer products inventory for a list of products on the market.

This has been a silent revolution for the food and cosmetic industry as products are developed and marketed with little attention in the general media. We need to understand what questions need to be to asked regarding this issue before meaningful answers can be given.

The UK Royal Society recommended that nanomaterials be regulated as new chemicals and that research laboratories and factories treat nanomaterials "as if they were hazardous" and that products containing nanomaterials be subject to new safety testing requirements prior to their commercial release. Yet regulations world-wide still fail to make the important distinction between materials in their nanoscale and bulk form.

There are clearly potential benefits from these new technologies but there are also risks to consumer health. It is very important that we now assess the current and future consumer and worker exposure to nano-particles considering their unique properties:

• Nano-sized particles have extreme mobility and are able to cross biological membranes and access cells, tissues and organs that larger-sized particles normally cannot. Once in the blood stream, nanomaterials can be transported around the body and are taken up by organs and tissues including the brain, heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, bone marrow and nervous system.

• In water, nano-particles spread unhindered and pass through most available filters. So, for example, current drinking water filters will not effectively remove nano-particles.

• Nano-particles have very large surface area to volume ratios and therefore high reactivity and biological activity.

The first step for government and industry is to benchmark the current exposure of consumers to nano-particles. Secondly, for new product development, the potential exposure of consumers and the impact of these new particles on consumers and workers needs to be assessed pre-marketing of these products.

So, the questions are: What is the current level of exposure of the US, European, Asian, and other populations to nano-particles?

And, for new nano-products: How will these products impact on the current exposure levels of these populations? Will it raise it to a dangerous level?

CREMe can help to benchmark the current exposure levels of each demographic sub-group of populations. By understanding the exposure of consumers, we can assess the potential benefits and risk to health. This will provide government and industry with scientific evidence to mitigate consumer health risks and ensure that these products are food safe.

If you are a government agency, manufacturer or retailer and are trying to understand what this all means, please contact us. We are an independent company which has the expertise, data and technology to help you to address any concerns you may have in the area of food, chemicals and cosmetics.

We provide a central validated resource for all stake-holders in this market to transparently assess, discuss and progress issues in this important emerging area.

CREMe will play an active role in nano-safety consulting for Nano-Group (www.nano-group.com), a new European website dedicated to best practice and innovations around nano technologies.

References:

The Precautionary Principle by Peter Montague

Nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory

Nanotechnology Wikipedia page