"Its Food Jim, But Not As We Know It!"

I came across an interesting article this week at the BBC news website, that really got me thinking about food and do we really know what we're consuming.

In the UK, the food industry has come under fire from the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee for being secretive about its use of "Nanotechnology" in food.

Here's a basic definition of Nanotechnology...."Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. This covers both current work and concepts that are more advanced. In its original sense, 'nanotechnology' refers to the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products."

You probably weren't aware of it but you're probably already come into contact with nanotechnology in the form of odor free socks. Its also being used to produce cancer drugs that seek out cancer cells before they spread and produce materials ten times the strength of steel.

While nanotechnology could be the invention to put all other past inventions in the shade it also has other not so nice uses, many military uses are for making more powerful weapons and smaller and more powerful tools for surveillance.

And now its being used by food manufacturers, to enhance flavour and even to make processed foods healthier by reducing the amount of fat and salt needed in production.

While you might think all of this is far in future there are currently 84 foods or food-related products that use nanotechnology.

While I might sound a bit paranoid, going from past experiences of food manufacturers should we trust these people with this technology? As you know packaged foods have always being tampered with using "E" numbers and artificial flavorings to enhance our addiction and make us want to eat more.

The food industry got into trouble before due to their use of GM crops and how they may affect us and thats probably why they've remained silent on this topic. But then others may say that all this secrecy has the opposite effect and that they may be hiding somethings from us.