“Nanoceuticals: Tiny Size, Big Potential,” nanovip.com, December 1, 2009
Noting the absence of significant regulatory oversight, this article discusses the use of nanotechnology in foods, food packaging and food supplements. While the Food and Drug Administration has decided not to regulate products according to the technology used, it will apparently issue a guidance document on nanotechnology in 2010. The article cautions that “companies need to realize the EU, Canada and the State of California have all requested information from manufacturers of nanoscale products.”
According to the market data on nanotechnology, while little food with nanotech ingredients are on grocery store shelves today, food packaging is an active application that accounts for billions in sales. Manufacturers are apparently using the technology to develop “improved tastes, color, flavor, texture and consistency of foodstuffs, increased absorption and bioavailability of nutrients and health supplements, new food packaging materials with improved mechanical, barrier and antimicrobial properties, and nano-sensors for traceability and monitoring the condition of food during transport and storage.”
The article also discusses how nanotechnology is being incorporated into nutrition via micelles, “the tiniest of capsules that form naturally when nature requires a fat-soluble substance to be soluble in water,” and liposomes. An Israeli-based company is reportedly using micelles as a delivery system for vitamins, omega-3s, beta-carotene, isoflavones, and lutein, while Australian researchers are developing “chitosan-based biopolymers to encapsulate and protect antioxidants from the low pH in the gut, so they can make it to the small intestines and be released in a controlled manner.”
The article concludes by observing how little is known about where “nano-enabled substances will go in the body and how they will affect health . . . This lends to a fear by regulators and consumers, both of which have been slow to learn about nanotech. It is truly an infant frontier that hopefully does not become another cowboy-filled Wild West the natural products industry does not need.”
