Anyone who does not believe that nanotechnology (cover story page 8) is not set to revolutionise our relationship with food should pause for a moment and consider the recent history of the electronics industry. Some readers will remember the valve radio, a combination of heat, wire circuitry and glowing vacuum valves needed to amplify tiny radio signals. Then, in the 1950s, elements of an electronic circuit were integrated onto a single piece of silicon. The electronic chip had arrived, valve electronics was dead and electronics had taken a major step towards miniaturisation.

By the mid-1970s scientists were able to create such minute circuits that the word micro (a millionth of a metre) was becoming redundant. A new term, nano, meaning a billionth of a metre, was born. The rest, as they say, is history.

Food technology appears to be on the threshold of an even more dramatic scientific breakthrough, which could have an even greater impact on our lives than the miniaturisation of electronics and the consequent computer revolution.

The definition of nanotechnology is the precise control of matter at the atomic and molecular level. The possibility now exists for us to manipulate atoms to create entirely new materials. Already US packaging firms are looking at new materials known as nanocomposites capable of giving products extraordinarily long shelf lives. Longer term, firms believe they can produce packaging capable of changing its molecular composition depending on the condition of the product inside or the environment outside. Imagine a material that can change colour when it recognises a pathogen or changes its composition when it senses a rise in temperature. Bio Vitesse, a biosensor company employing nanotechnology, is aiming to reduce the time it takes to detect pathogens to seconds.

Even more futuristic is the application of nanotechnology to create "interactive" foods. Dr Manuel Marquez, a senior scientist at Kraft food and director of NanoteK consortium, (see our story) believes it will be possible to create foods that change in colour, flavour and even nutritional value according to our desires or needs. Imagine foods capable of releasing calcium molecules to anyone suffering from the early stages of osteoporosis. What about foods able to detect an individual's susceptibility to an allergic reaction?

Futuristic nonsense or credible science? Looking at the money being thrown at this new technology it is more likely to be the latter. Some estimate that in the next 10 years nanotechnology services and products will employ 2 million people worldwide in a trillion dollar industry.

This all sounds both exciting and scary. Already environmentalists are screaming out for caution. The processed foods industry, the packaging sector and the chemical industry are after vast profits. Also, where science drives forward at a level incomprehensible to most lay people regulation risks struggling behind. This heady cocktail of science, profit, health claims and regulation is approaching us at speed. Remember the valve radio.