Titanium dioxide is used in an enormous range of food products, which can feel jarring when looking at some of its other uses.

Wegman’s puts titanium dioxide in its Original Macaroni and Cheese. Campbell’s Healthy Request Chunky Chicken Corn Chowder has it, as does Food Club’s Chunky New England Clam Chowder. Marzetti uses the color agent to brighten its Cream Cheese Fruit Dip. Dairy products usually don’t need titanium dioxide to look white, but Kroger has decided to add titanium dioxide to its Fat Free Half-and-Half. And titanium dioxide isn’t only in especially white or brightly colored foods: Little Debbie adds it to Fudge Rounds and many other products. According to the Food Scores database maintained by Environmental Working Group, more than 1,800 brand-name food products have titanium dioxide on their ingredients list. That said, it can still lurk as an unspecified “artificial color,” or labels might simply say “color added.”

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.