Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture - Volume 4, Issue 3, 2012

Nanomaterials in agriculture and food are key issues of public and regulatory interest. Over the past ten years, patents for nanotechnological applications in the field of food and agriculture have become abundant. Uncertainty prevails however regarding their current development status and presence in the consumer market. Thus, the discussion on nanotechnologies in the food sector with its specific public perception of benefits and risks and the patterns of communication are becoming similar to the debate on genetically modified organisms. The food industry’s silence in communication increased mistrust of consumer organisations and policy makers. The article discusses the background of the current regulatory debates, starting with the EU recommendation for defining nanomaterials, provides an overview of possible fields of application in agriculture and food industries and discusses risk assessment and the public debate on benefits and risks. Communicative recommendations are directed at researchers, the food industry and regulators in order to increase trust both in stakeholders, risk management and regulatory processes.

A combination of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems and nanoscale structures allows for the creation of novel miniaturized devices, which broaden the boundaries of the diagnostic approaches. Some materials possess unique properties at the nanolevel, which are different from those in bulk materials. In the last years these properties became a focus of interest for many researchers, as well as methods of production, design and operation of the nanoobjects. Intensive research and development work resulted in numerous inventions, exploiting nanotechnology in miniaturized systems. Modern technical and laboratory equipment allows for the precise control of such devices, making them suitable for sensitive and accurate detection of the analytes. The current review highlights recent patents in the field of nanotechnology in microdevices, applicable for medical and food analysis. The paper covers the structural and functional basis of such systems and describes specific embodiments in three principal branches: application of nanoparticles, nanofluidics, and nanosensors in the miniaturized systems for advanced analytics and diagnostics.

Nanotechnology offers powerful new approaches to controlling unwanted microorganisms and other potential biohazards. Engineered nanoparticles with antifungal, antimicrobial, and antiviral properties are now being developed for a variety of applications, including manufacture and maintenance of sterile surfaces, prevention and control of biological contamination, food and water safety, and treatment of infectious diseases and cancer. The great potential of antimicrobial precious-metal nanoparticles is reflected by the high number of recent publications and patent applications, which is summarized, at least in part, in this paper. This review should provide an overview and offer guidance to the scientific community interested in nano(bio)technology, nanomedicine, and nanotoxicology, and may also be of interest to a broader scientific audience. Furthermore, this review covers specific topics in research and development addressing the effects of nanoparticles on microorganisms as well as novel nanotechnology-based approaches for controlling potentially pathogenic microorganisms.

Starch is a promising bio-based material to replace synthetics in a number of applications. The production of starch-based fibers has been actively pursued in the patent literature. This article reviews patents on starch fiber technology, including fiber spinning from amylose, thermoplastic starch compositions, and non-thermoplastic starch compositions. Some new fiber spinning techniques, e.g. electrospinning and rotary jet spinning, employed for spinning starch fibers are also presented.

Pharmaceutical formulations that contain nanosized drugs are perceived as “Nanopharmaceuticals” and offer significant benefit for the patient compared to the conventional formulated drugs. There are several advantages of nanoparticular drug formulations such as enhanced solubility and dissolution rate, enhanced oral bioavailability, improved dose proportionality, reduced food effects, suitability for administration by all routes and possibility of sterile filtration due to decreased particle size range. Several nanopharmaceuticals are successfully marketed. Different patented techniques are commercialized to prepare nanopharmaceuticals such as milling, homogenization and precipitation. The focus of the underlying review is to give an overview of those technologies for nanosizing active pharmaceutical ingredients and recently published patents in the field of nanosized pharmaceutics.

Increasingly, food and agricultural industries are gearing up to use nanotechnological innovations to expand their already multi trillion dollar industries globally. The scientific community has identified a number of serious issues relating to risk assessments of nanomaterials such as the difficulty of characterising, detecting and measuring nanomaterials, as well as a lack of sufficient toxicology data. Apart from the scientific issues surrounding risk assessment, public acceptance of nanotechnology itself and nanofoods in particular continues to be elusive. This paper addresses the need to expand concepts of risk to include intangible or moral risk in the assessment of nanotechnologies. ‘Intervention’ points along the innovation chain are explored, where an expanded risk assessment could be applied, with a particular focus on the patent system.