Titanium Dioxide Banned as Food Additive

Titanium Dioxide Banned as Food Additive

Titanium Dioxide Banned as Food Additive 700 350 Adam Grossman

Titanium dioxide banned as a food additive in the EU

Titanium dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound utilized as a food additive for its anti-caking properties, ability to create pleasing color, and as a clouding agent.  It is added to a wide variety of processed foods including breakfast cereal, cheese, soups, alcoholic beverages, and processed nuts.  Though deemed safe for consumption as recently as 2016, the newest European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) safety assessment on titanium dioxide suggests banning it as a food additive as of 2022.

In 2016 EFSA evaluated titanium dioxide, also known as E171, and found no concerns regarding genotoxicity or carcinogenicity when titanium dioxide was ingested.  They also concluded that further testing and analysis was needed to examine the possible reproductive and developmental effects of titanium dioxide, especially with respect to titanium dioxide nanoparticles.  When EFSA undertook its 2021 reevaluation of titanium dioxide, they found that as much as 50% of the titanium dioxide used as a food additive was in the form of nanoparticles.  They found no additional evidence to support the claim that titanium dioxide nanoparticles cause reproductive or developmental effects.  After evaluating hundreds of studies, EFSA concluded while titanium dioxide (thus also titanium dioxide nanoparticles) could cause DNA strand breaks and chromosomal damage, it does not cause other kinds of genetic mutations.

EFSA determined that although less than 1% of titanium dioxide nanoparticles translocate from the gut into the blood in rodents, they have a half-life of 200-450 days when they do get into the blood.  The long half-life led EFSA to conclude that titanium dioxide nanoparticles could bioaccumulate, which is particularly noteworthy when considering EFSA’s exposure estimates for children.  They determined that children ages 3-9 have the highest potential exposure to titanium dioxide nanoparticles through food.  That led EFSA, in an abundance of caution, to recommend banning titanium dioxide as a food additive.

What does CoMeta say about titanium dioxide nanoparticles?  There are two exposure pathways for titanium dioxide nanoparticles: inhalation and ingestion.  As a food additive, ingestion of titanium dioxide nanoparticles is the primary exposure pathway.  That makes the GC score of 0.31 for lung injury inapplicable to titanium dioxide’s food additive uses.  However, reproductive injury has a GC score 0.30, reflecting the presence of a moderate amount of scientific evidence showing that infertility can result from titanium dioxide ingestion.  There are eight additional harms associated with titanium dioxide nanoparticles in CoMeta with gastrointestinal cancer having one of the lowest GC scores.

The European Union ban on titanium dioxide in food is set to begin in 2022.  Reducing unnecessary food additives is always a good thing, but if the aim to remove titanium dioxide in food is to decrease the potential of developing gastrointestinal cancer, it is unlikely this will be achieved.

 

 

 

Learn how Praedicat can help identify companies’ exposures and what options are available to protect against those exposures: here.