What people think about emerging food technology

The science behind the story Nanotechnologies Nanotechnology is the manufacture and use of materials and structures at the nanometre scale (a nanometre is one millionth of a millimetre). There is some interest in using nanometre scale materials in food packaging, which could keep food fresher for longer, or monitor the quality of the food. Nanotechnologies can also be applied to food to help better absorption of vitamins or to help reduce fat or salt content of our food. Functional foods This is a loosely defined marketing term that is applied to foods containing added ingredients that have a supposed health benefit. Examples might be probiotic yoghurts, or cholesterol-lowering spreads. Synthetic biology Synthetic biology is a developing area of science, where it may be possible to build completely new organisms or biological systems by assembling genes in a laboratory. This is very much at the experimental stage and there are no current or proposed food applications. Genetically modified (GM) food Genetic modification involves altering a plant, animal or micro-organism's genes or inserting genes from another organism - that is, a living thing. Genes carry the instructions for all the characteristics that an organism inherits. They are made up of DNA. A number of GM foods have been cleared for use in the EU, although the use of these GM foods is not widespread in the UK. Cloned animals Cloning involves the creation of an animal (the clone) that is an exact genetic copy of another (the donor). Clones occur in nature and many plants, such as strawberries, reproduce in this way. Some animals also clone themselves, such as amoeba (a microscopic single-celled organism) and some insects, such as greenfly. There is no cloning of animals for food production in the UK and marketing of food from cloned animals would require authorisation under the novel foods law. Irradiation Irradiation can be used to kill the bacteria that cause food poisoning. It can also delay fruit ripening, help stop vegetables such as potatoes and onions from sprouting and delay other deterioration. It is a process that produces a similar effect to pasteurisation, cooking or other forms of heat treatment, but irradiation only raises the temperature of food by a few degrees and so there is less impact on taste, look and texture. Novel food processes This is a general term that applies to new ways of processing foods. Examples from the recent past include the use of microwave ovens to heat and cook foods, and the use of high pressure processing as a low-temperature alternative to pasteurisation e.g. for 'fresh-tasting' long life orange juice.