The European Food Safety Authority had estimated that this dye, composed of titanium dioxide particles and used in confectionery, chewing gums, pastries, soups or cooked dishes, could no longer be considered “safe” .
Le Monde with AFP
The States of the European Union (EU) gave, Friday, October 8, their green light to prohibit from 2022 the dye E171 (titanium dioxide) as a food additive, after a questioning of its safety by the regulator European.
The E171, composed of titanium dioxide particles in powder form, is used in many food products – confectionery, chewing gums, pastries, soups or cooked dishes – for its coloring properties (white pigment) and opacifiers.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) had estimated early May that The E171 could no longer be considered” safe “ as an addendum because if the absorption of titanium dioxide particles is low, “they can accumulate in the body”.
The regulator, who had led his study at the request of Brussels, had therefore tried not to be able to exclude the “genotoxicity” of the component, that is to say its ability to damage the DNA, the genetic material of the Cells.
The text should enter into force “beginning 2022”
In the wake, the European Commission proposed to prohibit E171 in food throughout the EU territory, a project approved on Friday by the representatives of the twenty-seven, announced the European Executive in a press release.
Unless objected by the end of the year by the Council (the institution representing States) or the European Parliament, the text will come into force “beginning 2022”, with a transition of six months to the from which the prohibition will be total for use in food products.
For the moment, the pharmaceutical industry – which also uses the E171 dye in the making of drugs – will not be concerned by the prohibition, so as to “prevent any shortage” of medical products.
The green light of the member countries is “the ultimate nail in the coffin of titanium dioxide as a food additive,” rejoiced Camille Perrin, a head of the European Office of Consumer Unions. “In most European states, the E171 had already disappeared from the composition of food products, but it was still found in some chewing-gums, treats and cake decorations,” she observed.
The Higher Council of Belgian Health considers titanium dioxide as “possible carcinogen”, and France had prohibited last year as a food additive for one year. Researchers had established that it could cause precancerous lesions in rats. In France, the UFC-what to choose had regretted that this prohibition does not concern the presence of titanium dioxide in the drugs as well as in cosmetics, in the composition of which it is also used.
