With nanotechnology-enhanced paints already available at Home Depot, cosmetics at Bloomingdale's, and sportswear at Niketown, it was only a matter of time before your friendly MacDonald's burger got a dose of nanotech. But it won't come in the food just yet; first, you'll see it in the packaging.

That's because Ecosynthetix has just contracted with an Ohio manufacturer to produce McDonald's "clamshells", the clamshell-shaped cardboard boxes the burgers come in. Ecosynthetix's nanoparticle adhesives will help replace the polyvinyl acetate, PVA, and polyvinyl alcohol, PVOH, used to help laminate graphics onto the cardboard.

Ecosynthetix also produces nanoparticles for the adhesives that glue together the paper layers that make up corrugated containers, a $3 billion per year market.

Cardboard manufacturers currently use roughly four billion pounds of petroleum-based starchy adhesive. The starch in the nanoparticles, however, comes from crops, a renewable resource.

"Every $10 increase in a barrel of oil leads to an $80 billion a year impact on the national economy," said John van Leeuwen, chairman and chief executive officer of Ecosynthetix. "Our technology became interesting once oil went above $25 a barrel."

It'll be interesting to see if there's any backlash when consumers realize their McDonald's burgers are in contact with naoparticles. There's no indication of any harmful effects from this, but as the Magic Nano recall showed, we're not always rational when it comes to new additives in (or in contact with) our foods. (photo McDonald's)