Nanomaterials in food and agriculture: The big issue of small matter for organic food and farming

Summary

Nanotechnology is the study of very small matter, of materials where one dimension is less than 100 nanometres. Surveys reveal that consumers are generally ignorant of nanotechnology, are concerned of its risks versus benefits, expect labelling of products incorporating nanotechnology, and a big issue for respondents is particularly the use of nanotechnology in food. Organic standards of Australia, Canada, Demeter-International and the UK’s Soil Association exclude nanomaterials, however a general nanotechnology exclusion across the organics sector is lacking.