New Foods and Technologies
Novel foods are those new foods or food ingredients that have not traditionally been part of our diet and require a closer look by FSANZ before they can be sold in Australia and New Zealand. Many of the foods and food processing technologies we are accustomed to today have been around a long time and practical experience leads us to consider them safe. However, as scientific knowledge advances, food manufacturers are increasingly developing new food products that have no history of use. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has developed a definition of ‘novel food’ to try and work out which new foods might require pre-market safety assessments to make sure they are safe to eat. ‘Novel foods’cannot be sold in Australia and New Zealand unless they have passed such an assessment.
Genetically modified (GM) foods come from crops and other food sources that have been modified using gene technology. This technology allows the addition of new characteristics to crop plants by introducing genes from another source, for example putting a gene from a soil bacterium into a corn plant to help the crop resist attack by insect pests.
For thousands of years, people have been manipulating the genetic make-up of plants and animals using traditional breeding methods. This usually involves breeding with plants and animals selected for desirable characteristics, such as disease resistance, higher yields or better meat quality. This can take many generations to obtain the desired qualities. Gene technology provides a new way of identifying and transferring desirable characteristics between living organisms in a much shorter time frame.
Because GM foods are new to the food supply, FSANZ and regulators around the world take a cautious approach to deciding on their safety for human consumption. Before any GM food is allowed in the food supply, it must be assessed by FSANZ, and found to be as safe as the non-GM counterpart food. We do this by comparing the GM food with a similar non-GM food with a safe history of use, based on detailed molecular, toxicological, nutritional and compositional information.
Foods created using nanotechnologycan be described as ‘ engineering on a very small scale’ generally with structures being less than 100 nanometres in size. The term nanometre is not used very often and so to get a sense of the size it is best to imagine that about five hundred 100 nanometre structures could fit side-by-side onto the width of a strand of human hair.
Nanotechnology can be used in many different applications such as food, medicine, electronics, materials science and solar energy. It is important to realise that many naturally occurring nanoparticles are not new. Food and drinking water naturally comprises particles in the nanometre range, so humans ingest many millions of nanoparticles every day. For example, traditional processing of milk such as pasteurisation and homogenisation produce an emulsion of fine fat droplets of nanoscale proportions.
FSANZ recognises that very small particles can sometimes behave differently from larger particles of the same material and that it is wise to be cautious about their safety when used in food. When FSANZ assesses the safety of foods or food ingredients, it examines a wide range of scientific evidence, including information about the presence of any newly produced nanoparticles, to establish whether they are safe to consume. FSANZ requires anyone applying for a food standard to declare any nano-sized particle in their application.
FSANZ has not yet received any applications to approve any new type of nanoparticles in foods. However food manufacturers expect that advances in science and food technology mean they will soon be able to use nanoparticles to develop novel foods or improved food packaging.
Irradiated foods have been exposed to a radioactive source or beam to destroy insect pests or microbial organisms that can cause food poisoning or food spoilage. Any irradiated food must go through a strict safety assessment by FSANZ and, if approved, must be labelled as having been treated by radiation.
Irradiated food does not become radioactive itself. The food does not come directly into contact with the radioactive source, and when the treatment stops, radioactive waves do not remain in the food. Irradiation is suitable for use with certain foods instead of other currently available methods, or for which there is no other safe method available. Irradiation is also used on foods as a quarantine measure.