When used in an ultrafine-grade formulation, titanium dioxide becomes transparent to light, effectively making it an absorber of UV light. And because its particles are so small in this form, titanium dioxide creates a transparent barrier that absorbs UV light.

It's hard to determine the total amount of food products that have titanium dioxide because federal regulations don't require all producers to list its use on ingredient labels, but the list of foods containing the substance certainly doesn't end with Skittles.