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Expert Reaction
These comments have been collated by the Science Media Centre to provide a variety of expert perspectives on this issue. Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Views expressed are the personal opinions of the experts named. They do not represent the views of the SMC or any other organisation unless specifically stated.
Adjunct Professor Andrew Bartholomaeus is a consultant toxicologist with Adjunct Professor appointments at the University of Canberra and the University of Queensland. He has previously been the Chief Toxicologist for the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the General Manager of the Risk Assessment Branch of FSANZ.
The Friends of the Earth slide deck presents the rather unexciting and facile observation that a food containing high levels of calcium and phosphate and undergoing a variety of processes during production has a small quantity of calcium phosphate crystals (Ca apatite).
Regardless of the provenance of the observed material, calcium apatite is a normal human component of teeth and bones and small quantities of nanoparticulate deposits of this material can be found in normal human tissue.
Calcium apatite is also soluble in acidic conditions so the small quantity of the material present in infant formula would dissolve into essential nutrients and cease to be nano.
Similarly, silicon dioxide has been used as an ingredient of food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and a wide range of other products for the better part of a century without evidence of adverse health effects and the very low levels claimed to be present in the formula are highly unlikely to present a human health risk.
There is no evidence to indicate that nano dimensions of particulates are of themselves a risk to human health, and normal human breast milk is composed of a nano material (casein protein agglomerates).
Nano particulate materials form naturally in the gut due to the action of the intestinal microbiome and the commercial production of some nanoparticulate metals utilises this process. Consequently, small quantities of nanoparticulates are a normal aspect of the human diet and present no basis for concern.
One would hope that Friends of the Earth have sufficient moral compass to not seek to exploit the natural concern of mothers for the health of their children to further their corporate objectives by scare mongering analytical findings of no especial significance.
Dr. Emad Kiriakous is a Senior lecturer in Nanotechnology and molecular sciences at the Queensland University of Technology
The use of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in food products is increasing worldwide. It is inevitable that intended and unintended human exposure to nanomaterials will increase. Some nanomaterials are toxic to animals and humans. Therefore, the current regulations of food nanotechnology should take in account the risk characteristics of nanomaterials used in the food industry.
The presence of nano silicon and oxygen particulates in Australian Infant Formula is not alarming. Silicon dioxide and silicates have had a history of use in food without detrimental effects. However, the presence of needle shaped hydroxyapatite nanoparticles in infant formulas is significant since there is growing scientific evidence that the cytotoxicity of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles is shape- and cell-dependent.
Recent research has shown that hydroxyapatite nanoparticles of needle-like geometry cause cell-specific cytotoxicity.
Many international regulatory agencies have issued guidance documents with respect to the potential risks posed by nanomaterials. Therefore, with the recent findings by Arizona State University, it is important that the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) authority setup comprehensive guidelines to the food industry on nanomaterials, their safe shape size, potential intestinal uptake and cytotoxicity. It is very important to commit the food industry to using only safe nanomaterials.
