Overview

• Preliminaries.
  • Admin.
  • Questions.

Preliminaries

Admin

• Note takers (send me five main points): FC and JV.
• Welcome again to Prof. Leslie Lyons, our guest speaker for the week.
• I'm a bit behind on getting things out. Sorry.
• Extra credit:
  • Swimming Friday and Saturday. (DS and DP start times tbd.)
  • CS Table Friday at noon: Law, Order, and Computers
  • Others?

Main Points from LY

1.) Nanotechnology is a broad interdisciplinary area of research:

• An enabling technology that has opened up numerous avenues
• Food industry is drive on profits and progress
• Nanotechnology helps separate fact from fiction

2.) Food and radiation:

• There are many scientific differences between USA an abroad
• Food irradiation is a common method used to preserve certain foods
  • This is closely related to illness and death
  • Helps the food to become sterilized
• Radioactivity was discovered in the late 1800's
• 1990's radioactive food was common
  • Delayed ripening
  • Insect killer
  • Decontamination

3.) The main foods that would suffer greatly without technology:

• Potatoes
• Spices/powder
• Grains
• Meats
• Poultry
• Eggs

4.) Foods in the US that are approved to be radiated:

• Pork
• Fresh food
  • Mostly veggies and leafy spinach
• Spices/ dry veggies
• Uncooked poultry
• Shell fish
• Shell eggs

5.) Applications of Nanotechnology:

• Textiles, bio medical, health care, food agriculture, industrial, electronics, environment, renewable energy
  • Particles that are really small (< 100 NanoMeters): water, glucose, antibody, virus
• Consumer safety issues will continue to heavily influenced from government regulation
  • Nano pesticides are commonly present during the packaging and processing of the food
  • Digestive diseases can follow
• Commercial development with nanotechnologies has increased
• Nano particles make it dangerous for workers everywhere, the smaller they get the more dangerous they become

Main Points from JV

1. Cultural factors effect how food policy and food production is handled.

2. EX: In the US, one can decrease the size of a substances that is approved and still use it without a label. In the EU labeling of techfoods is required.

   • EU's longer history, union of multiple countries, stronger acceptance of science, fewer multi-national chain restaurants
   • US: shorter history, singular nation, business driven, large scale chain restaurant

3. Nano particles are artificial particles that have at least one dimension less than 100 nm. They are involved in many aspects of food consumption.

   • Agriculture: pesticides
   • Processing: new flavors, tastes, textures
   • Products: UV protection, contamination sensors
   • Nutrition: increase nutrient delivery

4. A good way to display/ map consumer concern is to use the risk-vs-control axis chart.

5. Is regulation appropriate for dietary issues? Should companies make an effort to be healthier?

   • Sugary drinks, high fat/high salt foods
   • Advertising issues
   • Trans fats vs Palm oil problems

6. Even with new foods and technologies, moderation of consumption is probably the best.

Main Points from FC

1) Modified food products with nano technology improves their overall nutrient content. For instance, nutrients that are not found in most food could be placed using this method of technology.

2) Food exposed to radiation is beneficial when trying to preserve it. For instance, it delays food or vegetable sprouting and increases shelf life. Radiation also removes insects commonly found in foods such as corn, decontaminates foods, and preserves food that increase overall shelf life and profits for businesses.

3) Nano technologies and nano-particles are smaller (10^-9 meters) than bacteria and viruses that allow for the easy entry into the body.

40 There are three ways these small particles could get into the body. Inhalation, absorbed, and through the skin. The small the particle is, the deeper they get into the lungs.

5) Safety concerns are rising. the FDA labeled nano-technologies as emerging technologies that have to be cleared by a list. Although the technologies have to pass safety regulations, labels are not mandated in the US. Likewise, if a particle is allowed in the US, the particle could be reduced as much as possible that will get deeper into the lungs.

Fun Fact: Trans fats will be removed from the market and replaced by palm oil. As a result, orangutans' shelters are threatened because of the deforestation of their habitats.

Lyons' Lecture

Slide: Reprsentative Substances Used to Improve Nutrition

• Ascorbic acid is necessary to prevent scurvy. "Why not add it everywhere?"
• Vitamin A is useful. Add beta-carotene, which is a precursor to Vitamin A.
• The big technology: Nutraceuticals.

Questions

• Why do we have such different perspectives on regulation?
  • Culture
  • Business
  • History (length of)
  • EU need to compromise across different country perspectives
    • In contrast, we let states do their own things

Food Irradiation [Slide Drawing]

• An old technology
• Idea: Expose food to nuclear/ionizing radiation as a food preserving product.
• Has been gaining increasing traction.
• Store nuclear isotope in pool of water. Lots of choices - Increasingly used for medicine as well as food.
• To expose to food, you lift it up into a building that has "a serious amount of concrete" for shielding.
• Put food on conveyer belt. Send it closer to the radiation, and send it back out.
  • Depending on time, may be completely sterilized.
• Assumption: Food is unharmed.

Food Irradition [Slide Drawing]

• Interior showing conveyer belt.

Chronology of Food Irradiation

• Radiation discovered in 1890s.
• 1950s - Irradiated food for astronauts.
• Expansion every since.
• Particularly in the 1990s.
• Every food scare leads to the approval of another FDA approval for radiation.

Effects [Slide "Levels of irradiation treatment"

(treatment in kilograys)

• Inhibition (0.02-3): Delayed sprouting, ripening, etc.
• All the way up to something more extreeme.

Applications

• Inhibition of sprouting: Potatoes, Onions, Garlic, Mushrooms
• Decontamination: Spices, onion powder (3-10 kGys)
• Insect disinfestation: Grains (mostly post 1990s)
• Destruction of parasites: meats (mostly post 1990s) (0.3-0.5 kGys)
• Inactivation of Salmonella: Poultry, Eggs, Shrimps, Frogs' Legs (3-10)
• Delay in fruit maturation: Strawberries, Mangoes (...)

Current Approval

• Frozen packaged meats used solely by Nasa: 1970
• Pork in 1985
• Fresh foods in 1986 to delay matruation (up to 1.0 kGy)
  • Kill mold and bacteria, etc.
  • Food is consumed "dead"
• Spices in 198?
• Note: High Dread/High Unknown category
• No, you can not put live animals through.

Question: Has There Been Research?

• Yes.
• We know that cooking transforms food (e.g., grilled meats).
• Concern about "unique radiolytic products" that weren't there before Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition: 48: 442-457 (2008)
  • Compounds are found
  • Not yet evidence of danger
• The radiation does not seem to stay with the food

Nanotechnologies and Nanoparticles

[Slide: Applications of Nanoparticles]

• In late 1980's and early 1990's, chemists found ways to make uniform small molecules.
• Examples C60 and C70, carbon nanotubes
• Physicists can make them too
• A variety of applications:
  • Textiles
  • Biomedical
  • Health care
  • Food and agriculture
  • Industrial
  • Electronics
  • Environment
  • Renewable energy
• We focus on food and agriculture

Nanometers slide

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_nanotechnology19.html

• Very small particles
• Smaller than viruses, bacteria, cancer cells
  • virus 100 nanometers
  • bacteria 1000 nanometers
  • cancer cells between 10K and 100K nanometers
• Bigger than some things
  • Glucose is 1 nanometer
  • Antimbodies are 10 nanometers

Nanotechnologies and Nanoparticles in the Food Industry

• Agriculture
  • Deliver and localize good things to plant
• Nutrition
  • Neutraceuticals - Deliver nutrients that are better abosorved
• Processing
  • Improve the shelf life.
  • Emulsions: E.g., things with cream tend to separate.
• Consumer products

Nanotitanium in Food

http://www.emagazine.com/magazine/eating-nano

• Titanium has been there for awhile
• In paint, too.
• Almost anything that's white
• And now they have nanotitanium, too
• Question: Why use nanotitanium?
  • You can use less
  • More volume per mass
  • A nice lead in to ...

Consumer Safety Issues (Chaudhry)

• Nanoparticles from food addititives, food packaging materials, food processing, food production, ....
  • "How much is taken up by the food" is a long-standing question
• What are the digestive/transport differences? Traditionally, foods are broken down to the nanoscale. What happens when they are already on that scale?
  • How do they behave?
  • Nutrition theory: Your body has to work less hard to break them down.
• Implications
• Regulation

FDA Guidance for Industry (April 2012)

• FDA issued these guildeines recently.
• "Assessing the Effects of Significant Manufacturing Process CHanges, Including Emerging Technology, on the Safety and Regulatory Status of Food Incredients and Food Contact Substances, Including Food Ingredients that are Color Additives."
• Stay in development phase.
• EU is a bit further along.

Random Questions

• US food probably has lots of nanoparticles and you don't know
• EU favors labeling; US does not
  • Even for irradiated foods
• There's a label for irradiated food
  • http://www.epa.gov/radiation/sources/food_labeling.html
  • But we don't use it
• OSHA is interested in the effects on workers.
• Three ways to absorb things
  • Inhale
  • Through the skin
  • Through the gut
• It's clear from atmospheric studies that inhaling small particles is bad for you.
  
  • It's as true for nanoparticles as other atmospheric polutants.
  • Some concern that carbon nanorods may be uniquely bad because of their shape.
• The EPA regulations are 1000x bigger than nanoparticles

Back to Kebs: Diet and Health: Protein leverage [Figures 8 and 9]

• If you are not eating 15% protein, it takes many more calories for the body to get the protein you need, since you are eating all of these things?

Question: Should we regulate diet and regulation?

• Is regulation appropriate for dietary issues?
• Sugary drinks
• High fat, high salt foods
• Food advertising
• Trans fat
• Reduce obesity

Back to Trans Fats

• Article from Des Moines register on soybean oil that has trans fat properties
• Also replacing with Palm Oil.
  • Production of Palm Oil raises concerns - Not sustainable.
  • Deforestation of Orangutan habitat
• Palm oil is also a saturated fat, which is unhealthy.
  • Healthier than Trans Fat, but still not healthy.
• Saturated have C-C-C-C bonds
• Unsaturated have C-C=C-C=C bonds
• Partially hydrogenating oils creates things that are implicated in heart disease.

Another Technofood

• Suspended flavoring agents in liquid
• Short-lived consumer moment
• Complete commercial flop. Who wants food with particles you can see.
• Not commercially successful - Do you really want floaty things in your food.
• Will some of these things turn out to be fads?

Nanosilver

• Nanosilver is in a lot of places for its antibacterial agents.
• It has a long history in the chemistry community, and your hands turn blue. You can tell that something is happening. So, it seems to be safe.
  • Effects of nanosilver on gut bacteria is still an active area of research
• Exposure of children to nanotitanium is also a concern

Conclusions

• Krebs is probably right: Moderation in everything
• "What's attractive about eating pills?"
• In the US, you can decrease the size of a substances that is approved and still use it.