Food for thought: delivering the promise of food ... (. And Europeans have resisted many poten...)

Food for thought: delivering the promise of food processing

Date:1/4/2008

. And Europeans have resisted many potentially useful technologies over unsubstantiated fears that they are not safe. Nowadays, the public are much more sceptical, particularly when it come to food, says McKenna. McKenna cites the example of using irradiation to kill pests and increase the shelf-life of mushrooms. But this process is confined to only a few countries within Europe, such as the Netherlands, despite a considerable amount of evidence that it is safe for humans.

McKenna thinks that food scientists must consider the publics perception of new technologies or risk the rejection of these technologies. One example is nanotechnologyengineering at a very small scale. Nanotechnology is being used in medicine to deliver drugs to specific targets in the body. A similar approach could be used in food to deliver vitamins. However, there are currently no foods using nano-particles in this way in Europe. The use of nanotechnology in food has been slow because of public concern that nano-ingredients could reach parts of the body where they were never intended.

McKenna hopes that by understanding the socioeconomic, political, and cultural influences on what Europeans eat, food scientists can better advise policy makers about how food should be processed and packaged, and how it is sold and eventually eaten.

The conference, on November 5-6, was attended by 75 scientists and policy makers from 22 countries and was one of the series of research conferences organised by the ESF-COST Forward Look initiative. Forward Look, a flagship instrument of the ESF, allows scientists to meet people from the world of policy and help set priorities for future research.

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Contact: Astrid Lunkes
alunkes@esf.org
33-388-762-172
European Science Foundation
Source:Eurekalert

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Food for thought: delivering the promise of food ...(. And Europeans have resisted many poten...)