The assessment was conducted following a rigorous methodology and taking into consideration many thousands of studies that have become available since EFSA’s previous assessment in 2016, including new scientific evidence and data on nanoparticles. 

Skin-penetration studies 

Not everyone agrees, though. The European Commission banned titanium dioxide as a food additive in the European Union in 2022.

But this is just the tip of the ice berg so many articles & studies are coming out challenging the safety of Titanium Dioxide in our food supply & personal care products.

The basic scenario of resistive switching in TiO₂ (Jameson et al., 2007) assumes the formation and electromigration of oxygen vacancies between the electrodes (Baiatu et al., 1990), so that the distribution of concomitant n-type conductivity (Janotti et al., 2010) across the volume can eventually be controlled by an external electric bias, as schematically shown in Figure 1B. Direct observations with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed more complex electroforming processes in TiO₂ thin films. In one of the studies, a continuous Pt filament between the electrodes was observed in a planar Pt/TiO₂/Pt memristor (Jang et al., 2016). As illustrated in Figure 1C, the corresponding switching mechanism was suggested as the formation of a conductive nanofilament with a high concentration of ionized oxygen vacancies and correspondingly reduced Ti³⁺ ions. These ions induce detachment and migration of Pt atoms from the electrode via strong metal–support interactions (Tauster, 1987). Another TEM investigation of a conductive TiO₂ nanofilament revealed it to be a Magnéli phase Ti_nO_2n−1 (Kwon et al., 2010). Supposedly, its formation results from an increase in the concentrations of oxygen vacancies within a local nanoregion above their thermodynamically stable limit. This scenario is schematically shown in Figure 1D. Other hypothesized point defect mechanisms involve a contribution of cation and anion interstitials, although their behavior has been studied more in tantalum oxide (Wedig et al., 2015; Kumar et al., 2016). The plausible origins and mechanisms of memristive switching have been comprehensively reviewed in topical publications devoted to metal oxide memristors (Yang et al., 2008; Waser et al., 2009; Ielmini, 2016) as well as TiO₂ (Jeong et al., 2011; Szot et al., 2011; Acharyya et al., 2014). The resistive switching mechanisms in memristive materials are regularly revisited and updated in the themed review publications (Sun et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2020).

Both calcium carbonate and titanium dioxide play crucial roles in various industries, but they are used for different purposes. Calcium carbonate is primarily used as a filler and pigment, while titanium dioxide is used as a whitening agent and pigment. Additionally, titanium dioxide is more expensive to produce than calcium carbonate due to its synthetic nature and complex manufacturing process.

Scrap zinc or concentrated zinc ores are dissolved in sulfuric acid, the solution is purified, and the two solutions are reacted. A heavy mixed precipitate results that is 28 to 30% zinc sulfide and 72 to 70% barium sulfate.

Titanium dioxide in food is used in a variety of products as a color enhancer. The most common foods containing titanium dioxide include:

Lithopone 30%, in any type of rubber, not only reduces the cost of partial substitution of TiO2 but also increases industrial production and improves the durability and the thermal and mechanical resistance of the finished product. 

As an professional Lithopone factory, Jinan Hongquan Titanium Industry Co., Ltd is located in Jinan, a beautiful spring city. The company’s scientific research personnel sincerely cooperate with well-known domestic universities and various titanium dioxide production enterprises to study and produce active Lithopone with great concentration. Some of its products have been widely used in chemical, textile, paper, plastic, paint and other production fields.