Environmental Considerations of and Societal Reactions to Nanotechnology in the Food Sector

Abstract

Food products and food packaging containing engineered nanoparticles are already commercially available [1] . Industry and governments invest considerable amounts of money in employing this technology for new applications in such areas as food packaging, food processing, food safety, and agricultural production [2] . It is therefore expected that nanotechnology will be even more important in the near future [3] . Nanotechnology has great potential to generate new products in various domains. Because nanotechnology may affect so many aspects of human life, risk assess-ment errors may result in irreversible damage [4] . Although many studies examin-ing possible applications of nanotechnology or nanoparticles have emphasized that the new technology may have adverse effects on health and environment , no conclusions could be reached due to lack of data. The life cycle assessment of nanotechnology applications is currently in its very infancy [5] . It is diffi cult, there-fore, to assess the environmental and human health impacts of nano - based prod-ucts and services. Overall, we currently know much more about the possible benefi ts of this technology than about the possible risks . This makes regulation very diffi cult, since there are few hard facts on which such regulations could be built [6 – 7] . Nanotechnology allows the creation of materials with new, desired properties. The very same properties that lead to potentially great benefi ts may also result in unwanted risks , however [8] . The novel properties of nanomaterials and the poten-tially broad introduction of nanomaterial - based products have raised many con-cerns over their consequences for human and environmental health [9] . Results of risk assessment studies suggest that some nanomaterials may have damage potential if they are exposed to humans or the environment [10] . It has been con-cluded that there is a lack of knowledge regarding the toxic effects of free nano-particles, and that not enough is known about dosage and exposure for traditional risk analysis models [4] . The situation is similar to that for other new technologies.