Nano-Based Food and Substantial Equivalence

In recent years regulators have become sensitized to the fact that advances in nanotechnology challenge current regulatory approaches and capacities. Since many of these issues parallel earlier debates on genetically modified foods, it seems highly likely that similar decision-making tools and approaches will be used for governing nano-based food. A key decision-making tool used by regulators in North America and Europe involves application of the principle of substantial equivalence. In this paper, the authors argue that substantial equivalence is an inapt arbiter of equivalence for nano-based food, and that it incorporates a fundamental flaw in logic known as a category-mistake.