Food safety advocates have been watching one specific additive for years, pushing food manufac-turers to remove it from their products. Now, Mars has blinked first – eliminating titanium dioxide from one of its signature confections…
The specific product that’s been getting all the attention in the retail sector over titanium dioxide is Skittles – the colourful little candy spheres so popular with kids and adults alike…
A history of complaints
We’ve been updating our faithful readers in this space for years about the Cold War over titanium dioxide (TD), waged by food safety advocates. TD is simply a white pigment that makes foods colours look brighter, for greater visual impact.
The safety watchdogs have insisted that the additive, which has no nutrient or therapeutic value, is merely a ‘marketing aid’. But the problem is, it’s been banned in a number of countries already – some for years – as a potential cancer-causing agent.
Now, the standoff has been resolved. Mars Co., maker of Skittles and other candy brands, has ‘blink-ed first’, announcing the removal of TD from Skittles.
‘Still not enough’
Emboldened by it’s ‘victory over TD in Skittles, the substance’s chief opponent released a triumphant statement in reply:
“As the nation’s leading public interest law firm focused on food and agriculture, we filed a legal pe-tition with the FDA demanding a ban on titanium dioxide in food,” says Jaydee Hanson, Policy Direc-tor at the Center for Food Safety (CFS). “We have long led the fight to close regulatory loopholes around nanotechnology and to ensure that emerging food technologies are subject to proper safety review and public accountability.”
“Mars’s decision this week to finally reformulate Skittles is a long-overdue step in the right direction — but it’s not enough. This is just one product. Mars must commit to removing titanium dioxide from all of its food products, not just those that face consumer backlash or overseas regulation.”
It should further be note that Mars is just one company that uses TD in its products. The War is by no mans won. but the Mars move is seen as an important victory for opponents – one which could con-stitute letting the Jinni out the bottle, ultimately resulting in the widespread removal of TD from use – at least in foods.
FDA has not ‘kept up’
Meanwhile the CFS says the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency charged with regu-lating substances such as TD, has ‘not kept up’ with the issue.
‘There is no requirement for companies to disclose the use of [such materials] in food, and no regu-latory framework to ensure their safety,” CFS notes. ” The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows these substances onto the market without independent safety testing, treating them as ‘generally recognized as safe’ based on outdated science.”
My take
The removal of TD from Skittles may have been triggered by a pair of recent actions on the issue – one by Trump HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He included TD as a ‘targeted’ substance under his campaign to have all ‘synthetic food additives’ removed from food products sold in the US. The other was the state-level ban on TD in school lunches in Arizona.
“Now is the time for Mars and all other U.S. companies to take this carcinogenic additive out of foods and medicines,” RFK challenged the entire packaged food sector.
Now that Mars has un-corked the bottle, we’ll see what happens…
~ Maggie J.