Nanofood
The nanofood market is expected to reach $20.4bn in 2010 and the nano-featured food-packaging market will grow to $3.7bn in 2010 with Asia becoming the biggest market for nanofood, China in the leading position.
Stabilising nutrients
Nanotechnology could be useful in stabilising nutrients such as iron and essential fats such as omega-3 which do not remain stable in liquids due to oxidation, change of colour, odour and taste. This would be of benefit to people with deficiencies such as anaemia.
In the world of nanofoods almost anything is possible in future. Food can be manipulated at an atomic or molecular level to taste as delicious and stay fresh.
Intelligent packaging
Coatings made from smart nanoparticles can sniff out the telltale gases given off by deteriorating fruit and can be made to trigger colour changes on labels which can indicate when itis ripe.
In food, health and environmental concerns are important at all three stages of production: farming, processing and packaging. From soil to supper, nanotechnology will not only change how every step of the food chain operates, but whether nano-engineered foodstuffs land on our tables will, to a large extent, depend on consumers.
Nanotech in Agriculture
Nanotechnology based tiny sensors called motes or smart dust can supply radio information to the farmer detailing what is going on in his field, inside his crops and even in the bodies of his animals so that he can optimise his yields by adopting precision farming. Nanotechnology is already adopted in the form of smart pesticides or nanocides.