In the United States, Skittles sweets are the subject of a complaint from citizens who consider them “unfit for consumption” because of the presence of the additive titanium dioxide.
Children love them for their bright colors and fruity tastes, but it is for their toxicity that they are talked about today. Skittles sweets are accused by a collective of American citizens of being a slow poison for the health of consumers. A complaint was filed against their producer, the Mars group, on July 14.
“Notorious Toxin”
In question, titanium dioxide, an artificial dye used to give the famous sugar balls their shine. Or rather “a notorious toxin”, “unsuitable for human consumption”according to the terms of the complaint, quoted by the Californian newspaper Los Angeles Times.
“The use of titanium dioxide complies with regulations” of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), defended a spokesperson for the giant Mars. The powerful American public agency indeed authorizes the use of the additive E171 as a coloring “provided that its quantity does not exceed 1% of the total weight of a food”. In view of the law, Mars would therefore be in the nails.
But the collective of citizens persists and signs, accusing the agrifood giant of not having “warns consumers of potential dangers” of the product, which according to him constitutes “fraud by omission”. Not to mention that Mars had indicated, in 2016, that it wanted “phasing out the use of artificial colors over the next five years”, including E171. So a promise “scorned”according to the plaintiffs.
Additive banned in France since 2020
Titanium dioxide has already been banned in France since January 2020 (and therefore in Skittles recipes). And will be across the European Union from August 2022, with the European Food Safety Authority concluding a year ago that it could no longer “to be considered a safe food additive”due to the presence of nanoparticles and the risk of inducing changes to the genome and promoting the appearance of cancers.
Pending the fallout from the class action lawsuit, the list of chemicals allowed in foods in the United States but banned in Europe but so keep getting longer.
