Nanotechnology has made its mark on the food industry, but is it really beneficial? Uncover the potential risks associated with this cutting-edge technology and find out why experts have raised their concerns.
Video Summary
- The ingredients label is a legal requirement to be printed on the packaging of food items, and if you’re one of those people who stands in the aisles of the supermarket looking for the names of ingredients that you can’t pronounce, then you’ve probably come across several ingredients that are made using nanotechnology.
- Some common Nano size ingredients include titanium dioxide, silicon oxide, iron and zinc dioxides, silver derivatives, calcium carbonate, tricalcium phosphates, and so on and so forth.
- Starting back in the 1990s, nanotechnology was widely used in the production of food products. These nanoparticles were able to make food more colorful, brighter, creamier, crunchier, and even keep it fresher for longer.
- Nanoparticles are so small that they can breach the blood brain barrier, and the ironic part is that researchers are looking into this function of nanoparticles in order to treat neurological diseases.
- These particles may breach the blood-brain barrier, circulate throughout the body, and penetrate our cell walls, and may also trigger an inflammatory or immune response.
- Dr. Rolf Halden, who is the Director of the Center for Environmental Health Engineering at Arizona State University, compared the unknown impact of nanoparticles to asbestos.
- Researchers at the University of Massachusetts and Amherst gave titanium dioxide to two different groups of mice, and found that both groups experienced changes in their gut bacteria, including inflammation of their colons, and that the obese mice had more pronounced symptoms.
- The study cited studies on mice, but the Fda allows these nanoparticles into food products without rigorous testing and authorization. The Fda is trying to balance the potential benefits of these additives with the risks that they actually cause.
- The Fda recognizes nanoparticles within food with a designation called GRAS, which means that if the manufacturer is already using the same ingredient in its larger form, they can also use it in its nanoparticle form.
- The Fda’s Nanotechnology Task Force concluded that its authorities are comprehensive for products subject to pre-market authorization requirements, but less comprehensive for products not subject to pre-market authorization requirements.
- The Fda has admitted that ingredients that have previously received the grass label are exempt from screening. However, the manufacturers are still responsible for ensuring that the products they Market are safe.
- The Task Force believes it is appropriate to work with manufacturers to identify data to substantiate the safety of products containing nanoscale materials.
- The Fda appears to recognize the potential dangers of these nanoparticles, but suggests that it is the manufacturer’s own responsibility to ensure that their products are safe. The Fda appears to rely heavily on the good nature of these different companies to be responsible.
- The Fda is relying on the good nature of profit driven food companies to use this new technology to alter food items without long-term health studies to support its use.
- The Fda’s guidance explicitly states that companies do not have to place nanotechnology ingredients on the labels of their food products, and instead recommends that the agency take action on a case-by-case basis.
- The Fda has recommended that food products with nanotechnology don’t need a label, even though the science has no long-term studies on the impacts of such nanotech. The Fda has also taken 13 years to release another report on nanotechnology.
- There are currently between 1900 and 2500 food products on the market using nanotechnology, and while the Fda does not require any food items produced with nanoparticles to be labeled as such, many other countries have taken steps to either limit or outright ban either all or some nanotechnology in their food.
- The European Union began requiring food to be labeled if it contained engineered Nano materials in 2011, and then went even further in 2015 by requiring additional testing to ensure proper health safety. In 2020, France banned all foods containing titanium dioxide.
- At this moment it’s not 100 known whether or not these nanoparticles are harmful, but given that they can cross the blood brain barrier, shouldn’t their effects be mapped out over a long-term scale before they’re injected into people or even more pertinently into our food?
- I think that Americans have a right to know what’s in their food and shots.
- If you’d like to know more about the nanotech particles that are in food, you can check out the links in the description box below this video.
References and More Info
🔵 FDA Guidelines: https://ept.ms/3lQ1yNk 🔵 FDA 2020 Nanotech Report: https://ept.ms/3wRVRVJ 🔵 FDA 2007 Nanotech Report: https://ept.ms/3GrS3NR 🔵 Blood-Brain Barrier Study: https://ept.ms/3sUZUhx 🔵 Other Countries: https://ept.ms/38L3wfj https://ept.ms/39Vj6oG https://ept.ms/3GrPVpA 🔵 Reference Article: https://ept.ms/3NFDj0s
