Food-grade titanium dioxide differs from what’s added to plastics and paints to enhance whiteness. However, there have been concerns about the environmental impact of titanium dioxide production and the potential health risks from exposure to its particles.
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.
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%.
North America
≤0.4
Algaecidal effect of Lithopon: After 5 years of exposure to weathering in Alpen (Lower Rhine)