Food-grade titanium dioxide, also called E-171, is used extensively in food products as a whitening agent in things like chewing gum,

and some maybe not-so-obvious products like baked goods and candy.

In a survey of foods from a U.S. grocery store, white frostings, coffee creamers, and chewing

gum had the highest concentrations, followed by some candies, almond and rice milks, and dairy

products like skim milk, sour cream, and yogurt.

And the tricky part in the U.S. is food additives like titanium dioxide are allowed to be listed

generally as color added, or as an anti-caking agent or filler. So you may not actually know what

foods contain it. This is exactly what the food survey found, high amounts of titanium dioxide

and some foods with no labeling indicating the product even contained titanium dioxide.

The only reason we care is because of risk.

Titanium dioxide has been approved as a safe color additive for use in foods and drugs in the United States since 1966

and the European Union since 1969 until the European Union since 1969, until the European Food Safety Authority,

known as EFSA, concluded in 2021 that titanium dioxide, E171, can no longer be considered safe

as a food additive. What changed? Based on all the evidence available, a concern for genotoxicity,

damage to our DNA, could not be ruled out. As a result of this report, the European Union

prohibited its use as a food additive in August 2022. Since the 2021 report was issued, the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration has been petitioned to no longer allow the use of titanium dioxide in foods, but that is still pending.

Other international food regulatory organizations like those in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also do not agree with EFSA's assessment and still allow titanium dioxide

in foods. Why all the differing opinions? The FDA notes that some of the genotoxicity tests

considered by EFSA don't represent the titanium dioxide used in foods. Food-grade titanium dioxide

is a mixture of micro-sized particles and nanosized

particles. Nanoparticles are tiny materials ranging in size from one to 100 nanometers. That's about

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