Of the products that include the additive in their labels, Thea Bourianne, senior manager at data consultant Label Insights, told Food Navigator USA in May 2021 that more than 11,000 products in the company's database of U.S. food and beverage products listed titanium dioxide as an ingredient. Non-chocolate candy led those numbers at 32%. Cupcakes and snack cakes made up 14%, followed by cookies at 8%, coated pretzels and trail mix at 7%, baking decorations at 6%, gum and mints at 4% and ice cream at 2%.
Though the regulated use of titanium dioxide in food products is legal in the U.S. and Canada, it's banned in some other countries, notably throughout Europe. In May 2021, the European Food Safety Authority announced that titanium dioxide can no longer be considered safe as a food additive.
The precipitation of titanium dioxide is a crucial process in the manufacturing of this important industrial material. Titanium dioxide is a white pigment that is widely used in various industries, such as paints, coatings, plastics, and cosmetics, due to its excellent opacity, brightness, and UV resistance.
Zhu et al. were the first to provide evidence that TiO2 NPs (21 nm) can transfer from daphnia to zebrafish by dietary exposure. Hence, dietary intake could be a major route of exposure to NPs for high trophic level aquatic organisms. Ecological research should therefore focus, not only on the concentration of NPs in the environment, but also on its bioconcentration, bioaccumulation and biomagnification. In addition it has been shown that TiO2 NPs can increase accumulation of other environmental toxicants: enhanced accumulation of cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) was found in carp in the presence of TiO2 NPs. The strong adsorption capacity for Cd and As was explained by the large specific surface area and strong electrostatic attraction of TiO2 NPs that contribute to facilitated transport into different organs.
Resumo–Este artigo discute a descoberta de litopônio fosforescente em desenhos de aquarela do artista americano John La Farge datados de entre 1890 e 1905 e a história do litopônio na indústria de pigmento no final do século XIX e início do século XX. Apesar de ter muitas qualidades desejáveis para o uso em aquarela branca ou tintas a óleo, o desenvolvimento do litopônio como um pigmento de artistas foi prejudicado por sua tendência a se escurecer na luz solar. Sua disponibilidade para e uso por parte de artistas ainda não está clara, uma vez que os catálogos comerciais dos vendedores de tintas geralmente não eram explícitos na descrição de pigmentos brancos como algo que contém litopônio. Além disso, o litopônio pode ser confundido com o branco de chumbo durante o exame visual e sua fosforescência de curta duração pode ser facilmente perdida pelo observador desinformado. O litopônio fosforescente foi documentado em apenas um outro trabalho até hoje: uma aquarela de Van Gogh. Além da história da manufatura do litopônio, o artigo detalha o mecanismo para a sua fosforescência e sua identificação auxiliada pela espectroscopia de Raman e espectrofluorimetria.