Nanotechnology In Food: FDA Proposes Rules For Monitoring Food Safety

WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators are proposing that food companies that want to use tiny engineered particles in their packaging may have to provide extra testing data to show the products are safe.

The Food and Drug Administration issued tentative guidelines Friday for food and cosmetic companies interested in using nanoparticles, which are measured in billionths of a meter. Nanoscale materials are generally less than 100 nanometers in diameter. A sheet of paper, in comparison, is 100,000 nanometers thick. A human hair is 80,000 nanometers thick.

The submicroscopic particles are increasingly showing up in FDA-regulated products like sunscreens, skin lotions and glare-reducing eyeglass coatings. Some scientists believe the technology will one day be used in medicine, but the FDA's announcement did not address that use.

The draft guidance suggests the FDA may require food companies to provide data establishing the safety of any packaging using nanotechnology.

Under longstanding regulations, companies aren't required to seek regulatory approval before launching products containing established ingredients and materials, such as caffeine, spices and various preservatives.

But FDA officials said Friday that foods and packaging containing nanoparticles may require more scrutiny.

"At this point, in terms of the science, we think it's likely the exemption does not apply and we would encourage folks to come in and talk to us," said Dennis Keefe, director of FDA's office of food additive safety.

Keefe said companies are studying whether nanoparticles can reduce the risk of bacterial contamination in certain foods. He said the agency is aware of just one food package currently on the market that uses nanoparticles but did not identify it. He said more are expected in coming years.

The FDA has previously stated its position that nanotechnology is not inherently unsafe; however, materials at the nano scale can pose different safety issues than do things that are far larger.

"This is an emerging, evolving technology and we're trying to get ahead of the curb to ensure the ingredients and substances are safe," Keefe said.

In a separate guidance, the FDA laid out suggestions for the use of nanotechnology in cosmetics, a practice which has been in use since the 1990s. Nanoparticles are used in skin moisturizer, mineral make up and other cosmetics.

The FDA has less authority over cosmetics than food additives. Generally, the FDA does not review cosmetics before they launch, and companies are responsible for assuring the safety of their products.

The FDA will take comments on both proposals for 90 days. There is no deadline for finalizing the documents.

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Comments

[liarfire]

01:15 AM on 04/23/2012

you all know they put wood pulp filler in food now..its cheep and plentiful..they get it from saw mills.

[gaydood]

05:33 PM on 04/23/2012

i think they tried that years ago in bread, for more fiber

[ProgressivesWin]

04:41 PM on 04/22/2012

How does it feel to be the guineapigs of the world, fellow Americans?

In the EU, manufacturers have to PROVE what they sell for consumption is safe or the regulatory agencies won't allow it on the market.

It's WELL past time to establish that policy in the US - instead, we get the coziest of relationships between the corporations and the agency supposed to regulate them, where these same corporations often write or help write the very laws they are supposed to follow.

Fox/henhouse, anyone?

[paradoja]

08:39 AM on 04/22/2012

Transhumanism here we come.

[eljefefx]

10:06 AM on 04/22/2012

Not fast enough.

[m66]

05:50 AM on 04/22/2012

Apparently simple compliance with health and safety regulations is off the table. It's easier to expose the public to a science experiment than to run a clean shop.

[Louis Sipher]

04:17 AM on 04/22/2012

You are already eating nano-particles. Check out these links for making a solar cell using powdered donuts that contain titania. Some of these TiO2 particles are nano-sized.

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/03/how-to/how-to-make-your-own-solar-cell
http://www.ilovephysics.com/2011/01/01/a-solar-cell-from-powdered-doughnuts/

[RedandGreen]

05:06 PM on 04/21/2012

So, nanotechnology is presently being used in a product packaging, and hasn't been certified safe yet, and then the FDA is withholding the name of that product? How many times can the FDA prove that their interests are often in favor of protecting business malfeasance than protecting the public, and still function without public action to stop that practice.

[liarfire]

01:39 AM on 04/23/2012

Be cause the people have been slowly systematically indoctrinated into a mindset of corporate cubical zombisam.