In food, titanium dioxide is often used as an artificial color additive. Tasha Stoiber, senior scientist at the consumer health nonprofit Environmental Working Group, says titanium dioxide can generally be thought of as a paint primer – it often goes on a hard-shelled candy like Skittles before the color is added to give it a uniform shine.

There are many uses of titanium dioxide that we don't know about because they were made exempt from being on the package in 1977, said Faber, who added that nothing much has changed since – other than the FDA approving some other uses of the color additive, such as expanding the use of mica-based pearlescent pigments (prepared from titanium dioxide) as color additives in distilled spirits over recent years.

The paints & coatings segment contributed the largest in the global Lithopone market share. It is added to paint as a white pigment to enhance its surface properties such as UV resistance and resistance to fungicidal and algae growth. 

Porcelain White, 32 per cent sulphide, 68 per cent barium sulphate.