The Food Safety Agency says more work on titanium dioxide is needed to better assess the health risks to consumers.
Titanium dioxide is in the sights of the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES). In a notice delivered on April 13, it indicates that this food additive, also called E171, must be the subject of studies in order to identify the dangers to which consumers are exposed.
Last January, ANSES was informed by the ministries in charge of the Economy, Health and Agriculture questioned by a study conducted by the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA). Researchers have shown in rats that this nanoparticle, used as a colorant in candies or cookies, TiO2, is responsible for precancerous lesions in the colon. They also showed that titanium dioxide is able to pass through the wall of the intestine and find its way into the bloodstream.
An effect never before identified
ANSES was then tasked with assessing whether the INRA study was likely to call into question the position of the European Food Safety Agency (Efsa). Last September, the latter considered that the oral ingestion of E171 “does not constitute a health problem for consumers”. However, European experts have failed to define an acceptable daily intake.
Although for the moment, ANSES considers that the French studies do not allow this questioning, it stresses that they have highlighted “effects that had not been identified previously, in particular potential promoter effects of carcinogenesis ”. She therefore recommends that this work be continued in other animals.
Already classified as probable carcinogen
In addition, she recalls that several other research projects on titanium dioxide are underway. “These studies focus in particular on the passage of the blood-brain barrier of TiO2. All of these results will have to be examined by EFSA as part of its work on the evaluation of food additives, ”explains ANSES.
In addition, it should be noted that this molecule has already been classified as a possible carcinogenic substance for humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), after studying the impact of exposure by inhalation, in particular in the professional framework.
The appearance of lung tumors was also observed in rats after inhalation. In May 2015, ANSES then submitted to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) a proposal for classifying E171 as a substance potentially carcinogenic to humans. A decision by ECHA is expected in the second half of 2017.
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