
Titanium dioxide in food
The FDA has not updated its general guidance on safety assessments since 2007. Within that time, there has been a significant increase in research on the confluence of toxicology, nanotechnology and human health. The EU updates its guidance regularly with new science available to offer proper safety assessments, with its most recent update published in 2021.
There are many titanium dioxide manufacturer in market. Rutile Titanium dioxide in the form of a white pigment is widely used in the industry:
1. In the production of inks and printing inks - as a pigment with excellent whiteness and very good properties.
2. Plastic materials, such as: wall claddings, floor coverings (linoleum, rubber, PVC), roofing, wires, cables - titanium white is included in the protective layer against degradation of atmospheric conditions (especially UV radiation), and has concealing properties.
3. Cosmetics: gels, eye shadows, foundation, lipstick, pastes (including teeth) - as a component of pigments.
4. Tanning preparations - surface-modified with a hydrophobic coating - acts as a UV filter.
5. Paper pulp - anatine is used as a filler and reinforcement.
6, Packaging film, adhesive mortars, plasters, cement, caulking agents, ceramic tiles - is an additive that improves resistance to colour change.
7. PCigar production - titanium white gives the ash a white color.

It has an extremely high melting point of 1 843ºC and boiling point of 2 972ºC, so occurs naturally as a solid, and, even in its particle form, it is insoluble in water. TiO2 is also an insulator.

CSPI’s Chemical Cuisine is the web’s definitive rating of the chemicals used to preserve foods and affect their taste, texture, or appearance. Besides titanium dioxide, the group recommends avoiding artificial sweeteners like aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose, as well as synthetic food dyes like Yellow 5 and Red 3. CSPI and others have recently asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban the latter dye in foods and ingested drugs because the FDA has already determined that it is a carcinogen unsafe for use in cosmetics.
Nano-sized TiO2 generally shows low or no acute toxicity in both invertebrates and vertebrates. However, exposure of Daphnia magna to 20 ppm TiO2 for 8 consecutive days was found to cause 40 % mortality. Zhu et al. showed minimal toxicity to D. magna after 48 h exposure, while upon chronic exposure for 21 days, D. magna suffered severe growth retardation and mortality. A significant amount of nano-sized TiO2 was found also accumulated in the body of the animals. Similar findings with coated nano-sized TiO2 (T-Lite™ SF, T-Lite™ SF-S and T-Lite™ MAX; BASF SE) were reported by Wiench et al. Biochemical measurements showed that exposure to TiO2 NPs induces significant concentration-dependent antioxidant enzyme activities in D. magna. Lee et al. showed that 7 and 20 nm-sized TiO2 induced no genotoxic effect in D. magna and in the larva of the aquatic midge Chironomus riparius.