The French minister of health, Marisol Touraine, and agriculture minister, Stéphane Le Foll, have submitted a request to reassess the safety of white food colouring titanium dioxide which has been approved by the government. Scientists say they have found that nanoparticples in the food additive can cross the intestinal barrier and pass into the bloodstream.
In September 2016, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) stated that current levels of dietary exposure to titanium dioxide posed no health concerns, although they have been unable to set an acceptable daily limit (ADI) due to lack of research.
The French food industry association ANIA have acknowledged the study was in its early stages and more research must be done to extrapolate the findings to humans.
The EFSA is calling for research to fill in the data gaps and will consider the relevance of the findings in due course.
