A recent report detailing findings by the Science and Technology Committee of the UKs House of Lords indicated that the use of nanotechnology, and nanoparticles in particular, in food production and packaging will most probably mushroom during the course of the next decade, despite the fact that little is known for certain as regards their safety. The committee suggested that the worldwide scarcity of scientific research to examine the use of nanotechnology in food and food packaging is likely to result in an inability to properly and safely regulate and monitor potentially beneficial or harmful products.

The chair of the Lords committee, Lord Kleb, pointed out that, although nanotechnology has the undoubted potential to provide definite health benefits, it is still vital to ensure that detailed and rigorous research is conducted in order to establish safe practices and products and to identify any possible risks.

Nanotechnology is a process whereby nanoparticles, minute materials thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair are designed and manipulated according to the needs of businesses and consumers.

Thanks to nanotechnology, it may be possible to manufacture much stronger and lighter materials, healthier foods and improved cosmetic products. As the Lords report suggested, however, there still exists a paucity of in-depth research into possible risks and benefits.

The committee heard wide-ranging evidence from food producers, regulators and scientific experts, and discovered that the value of the global market related to nanotechnology in food stood at $410 million in 2006, and was likely to mushroom to over $5 billion by 2012. Lord Kleb stated that, as a result of the impending potential boom, more research was vital, and he exhorted food producers and manufacturers to turn away from being obscure with regard to discussing what work they were doing in the field of nanotechnology in food. He cited the recent example of controversies with genetically modified foods and the way in which industry practises had hardened public opinion against the practise. He called this entirely the wrong approach. and used the nanotechnology industry to change its current practise of secrecy.

According to Professor Stephen Holgate, Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology at Southampton University, nanoparticles behave entirely different to larger particles once inside the human body, pointing to a number of studies qualifying the point. As a result of their different actions, they were able to penetrate barriers in the body, enabling then to enter vital organs-including the brain. Professor Holgate pointed to this as evidence in itself that further urgent research into nanotechnology for use in food was imperative.