Titanium dioxide is a white pigment refined from titanium-bearing mineral ores into a very pure, fine powder. It is bright and highly opaque, so it is used to make foods brilliant white or to give a pale, even base beneath other colours. Its INS number is 171, and Codex lists it as a colour.
In snacks it is mostly found in sugar shells and coatings. On SeekSnack it is part of the colour list of M&M Peanut Chocolate, and Euro Cake - Hokkaido Milk lists it as its only colour, described on the pack as a natural colour.
Rules on titanium dioxide differ. It remains permitted in Thailand and many other countries, but the EU removed it, formerly E171, from its list of authorised food additives in 2022. That followed a 2021 opinion from the European Food Safety Authority, which concluded that it could no longer be considered safe as a food additive because concerns about genotoxicity could not be ruled out.
