After oral ingestion, the absorption of titanium dioxide particles is low, however they can accumulate in the body, Maged Younes, chair of the European Food Safety Authority's expert Panel on Food Additives and Flavourings, said in a May 2021 statement.

Overwhelmingly, research that’s relevant to human eating patterns shows us that E171 is safe when ingested normally through foods and drugs (1,2).

Drobne et al. used the terrestrial arthropod Porcellio scaber as a test organism for determining the cytotoxic effect of TiO₂ NPs (anatase). The animals were exposed to TiO₂ NPs of two different sizes (25 nm and 75 nm) in the concentration range 10–1000 μg TiO₂/g dry food for 3 to 14 days. No adverse effects, such as mortality, body weight changes or reduced feeding, were observed. In fact, quite the opposite, an enhanced feeding rate, food absorption efficiency and increase in catalase activity were observed. The intensity of these responses appeared to be time- but not dose-dependent. It should also be noted that the concentrations tested in this study were much higher than the predicted concentration (4.8 μg/g soil) at high emission scenario of nano-sized TiO₂. Using the same test organism another group showed that exposure to TiO₂ NPs induced destabilization of cell membrane in the epithelium of digestive glands isolated from exposed animals. They also showed that this effect can be observed after just 30 minutes of exposure.

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