Nanotechnology
has changed the way we consume food. It may sounds ridiculous that we all ate
nanotechnology but in fact it is more common than what we think and it does
exist in most of the food that we usually consumed for more than a decade. The
nanomaterials can be either produced naturally in food itself or intentionally
added with engineered material sources for a better and healthier planet.
The
purpose of adding these man-made nanomaterials into the food is to improve its
quality, appearance and to lower the nutritional deficiencies. These
nanotechnologies aims to restructure the food components to get desired food
properties. For instance, it produces food with less salt, sugar and calories
without changing the taste and it often used in dietary drinks and food.
Image Source:
http://www.hortibiz.com/hortibiz/nieuws/nanotechnology-based-packaging-solutions/
For
instance, it makes mayonnaise less fattening by replacing the fat molecules
with water without changing its taste. No doubt, this is really a good news as
we now can have delicious food without calculating the calories. Hence, it
helps to control the obesity and diabetes rate by producing more healthy food.
Another example would be yogurt, of which it contains nanoparticle (i.e.
titanium dioxide) that acts as colour enhancer to make it as white as possible.
It also helps to deliver more important nutrients like vitamins into the food
and these nanoscale nutrients are believed to be absorbed by human body more
easily due to its extremely tiny size.
From
all these, we could clearly see that the intention of using nanotechnology in
the food industry isn’t bad and in fact it is to build a better world. Who
doesn’t want a healthier life? Everyone does. With the trend of healthy eating,
I believe that there is a huge market for these healthy food despite of the
fact that people are still uncertainty over the nanotechnology. So the organizations that work on this nanotechnology should spread and bring this knowledge or news in order to make this nanotechnology exist and available for everyone.
Written By: Team 3 (Pun Pui Yi)
References:
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