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Say goodbye to titanium dioxide in your Skittles! Mars Wrigley, the New Jersey-based company behind the rainbow candy, confirmed this week that they’ve removed the ingredient from their Skittles portfolio in the United States.
Titanium dioxide is a common food additive used to enhance the white color and opacity of food. It came under scrutiny last week in a report released by the Make America Healthy Again Commission, chaired by U.S.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The report highlighted potential concerns about certain food additives, including titanium dioxide, citing possible cellular and DNA damage.
Mars Wrigley emphasized their commitment to product safety, stating that all their products meet strict safety standards and regulations. While titanium dioxide is found in thousands of other candies listed in the FDA’s FoodData Central database, the European Union banned the additive in 2022 due to concerns about genotoxicity – the potential for a substance to damage DNA. These concerns were raised in a report by the European Food Safety Authority, and further supported by studies from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that classified titanium dioxide as a possible carcinogen.