TECHNOLOGY MAPPING TO FOOD PRODUCTION APPLIED NANOTECHNOLOGY

Resumo

The nanotechnology has emerged as an alternative to improve food products, allowing changes that alter the way food production, processing and consumption are handled. Therefore, the objective of this research was to carry out a technological mapping on the technologies that apply nanotechnology in food production. The methodology corresponds to a quantitative exploratory study, which verified by means of a survey the patent deposits in the database European Patent Office (Espacenet). The results showed that there are still few deposits on the application of nanotechnology in food production, with Russia being the country that most made deposits, showing that this country has been seeking to improve the development of its food products. In addition, it was found that the independent inventors were the largest depositors, showing that it is still necessary to stimulate collaboration between companies and universities to expand the development of new products and processes that apply nanotechnology. Therefore, it is necessary to expand studies on nanotechnology as well as improving food production through the application of molecule manipulation.