Nano-Powder on Your Doughnuts: Should You Worry?

Nano-Powder on Your Doughnuts: Should You Worry?


There are nano-sized particles in your food.
Does this make you nervous?

A new report from an environmental health group, As You Sow, raises concern about nanoparticles in some popular sweets. The group says it found particles of titanium dioxide less than 10 nanometers in size in the powdered Sugar coating on donuts from Dunkin’ and Hostess (now sadly defunct). The group argues that the nanoparticles have no business in any kind of food until safety testing is done; in this case, the tiny bits could make donuts even unhealthier.


http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2013/02/06/nano-powder-on-yo...


Nano-sized particles, roughly one-billionth of a meter in diameter (much smaller than the width of a human hair), have been in food for decades at least, often an unintentional byproduct of processing techniques. But a whole range of novel nano-sized particles—ranging from tiny flakes of titanium dioxide to whiten powdered donuts to submicroscopic silver bits to kill microbes—are showing up today in food and food packaging on purpose.

The nanoparticles on the donuts may fall into the happenstance category and result from the milling processes used on the powdered Sugar mixture. “Whether these TiO2 nanoparticles were engineered or a byproduct of manufacturing processes is not known,” the report notes, and the point was backed up by As You Sow chief executive Andrew Behar, who added in an email that the nanoparticles “may or may not have been present for a while. We have two experts that disagree on this: one saying that you cannot mill to 10 [nanometers] and the other saying that it is a result of crystals being shattered.”

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2013/02/06/nano-powder-on-yo...

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