Nanotechnology in Food & Agriculture - denix

Appendix A contains a list of 104
commercially available foods, nutritional
supplements, food contact materials
like storage containers and chopping
boards, and agricultural chemicals such
as pesticides, plant growth treatments
and chemical fertilisers that contain
manufactured nanomaterials (Table 1
provides a few examples). Given the
reluctance of food manufacturers to
discuss their use of nanotechnology
(Shelke 2006), it appears likely that our
list represents only a small fraction of
commercially available products that
contain nanomaterials.
Table 2: A selection of major food
and agriculture companies engaged in
nanotechnology research and development
(ETC Group 2004; Innovest 2006; Renton
2006; Wolfe 2005).
Company
Altria (Kraft Foods)
Associated British Foods
Ajinomoto
BASF
Bayer
Cadbury Schweppes
Campbell Soup
Cargill
DuPont Food Industry Solutions
General Mills
Glaxo-SmithKline
Goodman Fielder
Group Danone
John Lust Group Plc
H.J. Heinz
Hershey Foods
La Doria
Maruha
McCain Foods
Mars, Inc.
Nestlé
Northern Foods
Nichirei
Nippon Suisan Kaisha
PepsiCo
Sara Lee
Syngenta
Unilever
United Foods
Note: For display purpose companies
are listed in alphabetical order.
Friends of
the Earth
Many more nanofood products are in
development. By 2010 it is estimated that
sales of nanofoods will be worth almost
US$6 billion (Cientifica 2006). Many of
the world’s largest food companies,
including Heinz, Nestlé, Unilever and
Kraft, are exploring nanotechnology for
food processing and packaging. Many
of the world’s largest agrochemicals
and seed companies also have
active nanotechnology research and
development programs (Table 2).
Nanotechnology has potential
applications in all aspects of agriculture,
food processing, food packaging and
even farm and food monitoring:
• Methods to enable foods such as
soft drinks, ice cream, chocolate
or chips to be marketed as
‘health’ foods by reducing fat,
carbohydrate or calorie content
or by increasing protein, fibre or
vitamin content.
• Production of stronger
flavourings, colourings, and
nutritional additives, and
processing aids to increase the
pace of manufacturing and to
lower costs of ingredients and
processing.
• Development of foods capable
of changing their colour, flavour or
nutritional properties according to
a person’s dietary needs, allergies
or taste preferences (high on the
research agenda of food giants
including Kraft and Nestlé).
• Packaging to increase
food shelf life by detecting
spoilage, bacteria, or the loss
of food nutrient, and to release
antimicrobials, flavours, colours
or nutritional supplements in
response.
• Re-formulation of on-farm inputs
to produce more potent fertilisers,
plant growth treatments and
pesticides that respond to specific
conditions or targets.
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