Items Tagged With Food

The III Hispano-French Conference on micro and nanotechnologies was held recently in Donostia-San Sebastián, one of the participants being AZTI-Tecnalia which presented part of its research carried out within the framework of the European GOODFOOD—Food Safety and Quality Monitoring with Microsystems programme.

NanoSight Ltd has announced that the Organic Materials Team within AWE Aldermaston has successfully tested and validated NanoSight’s characterisation systems for accurate analysis of nanoparticles in suspension. The team has found that the system offers an excellent way to quickly and reliably assess the dispersion of nanoparticles in a range of aqueous and non aqueous solvents.

Syrris, a UK developer of tools and technologies for R&D chemists, has announced the formation of a subsidiary company, The Dolomite Centre Limited (Dolomite), the first Microfluidic Application Centre in the world. With a grant of £2 million from the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Dolomite will use its funding and technical expertise to design and build microfluidic devices and instrumentation, either to meet a client’s specification or to develop an entire instrumentation and device solution from scratch. Such technology can offer improved reproducibility, faster performance and lower reagent consumption across a broad range of applications including, environmental monitoring, clinical diagnostics, food and beverage, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals and chemicals.

Lock one or more molecules up within a cage of nanometre dimensions. Take this “nanocontainer” to the desired spot and free the molecules. Or keep them locked up for a while and introduce other molecules into the container, for chemical reactions inside. By using polymers containing iron, it is possible to make intelligent containers of which the access of molecules can be regulated in a chemical way. A research team led by Professor Julius Vancso of the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology has succeeded in fabricating these nanocontainers. The scientists foresee exciting applications in, for example, medicine, in adding additives to food or in ultrafast reactions in nano chemistry. They present their results in the September issue of Nature Materials.

Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, today announced the formation of an internal FDA Nanotechnology Task Force. The new task force is charged with determining regulatory approaches that encourage the continued development of innovative, safe and effective FDA-regulated products that use nanotechnology materials.