FDA Finalizes Guidance on Nanotech Use in Food

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released its final guidance on the use of nanotechnology in food as well as draft guidance on use of the technology in animal food. Rather than categorically judging nanotech as either safe or harmful, the agency indicated that it will consider specific characteristics of products with nanotech as they are produced. Among FDA’s nonbinding recommendations are encouragement for food manufacturers’ considerations of composition, safety and regulatory status as well as assurance that the guidance does not change the status of products already generally recognized as safe. The agency also recommends that manufacturers assess whether their implementation of nanotech will change their safety and regulatory status by determining what the physiochemical changes of the food product may be and invites consultations with the FDA about those determinations. “Our goal remains to ensure transparent and predictable regulatory pathways, grounded in the best available science, in support of the responsible development of nanotechnology products,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a news release. “We are taking a prudent scientific approach to assess each product on its own merits and are not making broad, general assumptions about the safety of nanotechnology products.”

Issue 528