Nanotechnology in Food: Lessons from the Industrialization and Enrichment of Bread

How should we understand new applications of nanotechnology to our food? Helmut Kaiser Consultancy expects research funding for the application of nanotechnology in food to reach $30 billion by 2015. Currently, an Australian bread company, Tip Top Bakeries, aims to combat heart disease by using nano-encapsulation technology to enrich its white bread with Omega-3 fatty acids. However, nano-encapsulation does not affect the high glycemic index in Tip Top’s white bread, and studies show the consumption of a high glycemic load increases risk of heart disease. Building on these concerns, my poster offers an applied history of prior technological interventions in bread production in order to contextualize and obtain possible lessons for the new development of nanotechnology in food. The history of technological innovation in the bread industry revealed an unmistakable pattern: narrow-sighted technological solutions to challenges in bread production repeatedly produced new problems and unintended consequences for human health. The history of bread technology—in addition to general uncertainties surrounding the toxicity of ingested nanomaterials, the unknown behavior of most nanoparticles in biological contexts, and the nearly absent regulation of nanomaterials in food—suggests the need for caution in the development of nanofood technology.  Furthermore, future applications of nanotechnology in food need to provide tangible benefits to overcome the daunting risks of uncertainty associated with nanotechnology in food.