One tiny European issue- nano or not.
Europe we have a problem, you see you know that new law that your Europollies passed about compulsory labelling of nanoparticles that comes into effect pretty much NOW? Well, that law is lacking in practical detail and when I say lacking what I mean is the measurement tools that one needs to use to work out if a particle is nano or not are very hard to come by – totally impractical – exist only in crusty old research institutions – under lock and rusty key. Oh and even if you do have a suitable measuring device little are many different ways in which to use it resulting in many different results. What is nano one way is massive another. Hmmmm.
And this is a problem because the confusion filters down from ingredient manufacturer to ingredient distributor and on to ingredient user/ formulator. That’s me, right there, the last stop on the R&D food chain and the hand that reaches out of the lab and touches the brand owner. It is us who get asked ‘does my product contain nanoparticles?’ and it is us who have to make sense of the technical info and relay it to an over-enthusiastic marketing team who feint at the slightest whiff of controversy before spending every last inch of energy trying to think up ways of making whatever ‘problem’ exists go away.
Clear as mud.
And that marketing issue leads to this which is why I’m worried.
My dear Europeland, you really really don’t like it when brands market themselves using ‘free from’ claims but then you go and play right into their hands by calling out nano particles on the ingredients label. Now I know that just adding the word ‘nano’ after an ingredient shouldn’t spell doom […]