As for titanium dioxide, the FDA approved titanium dioxide for use as a food additive in 1966. The last time the agency reviewed the additive’s safety, according to the Guardian, was in 1973.

Historically, the first mentions of zinc sulfide being utilized as a pigment were approximately sixty years before the everyday use of lithopone. Originally, it was thought to be appropriate for coloring rubber. In England, a patent was granted for this process. Two decades after this, the focus shifted to zinc sulfide as a suitable pigment for paint. The year 1874 witnessed the patenting of a manufacturing process for a novel white pigment composed of zinc sulfide and barium sulfate. Dubbed Charlton white or Orr’s white enamel, this began a new era for white pigments.