The French government release a press release on April 17, 2019, informing that they are banning titanium dioxide in foods from 1 January 2020. The decision, from the Ministry of Environment and from the Ministry of Economy, will be published shortly as a ministerial decree.
E171 is used in foods e.g. mainly as whitener agent.
Following an announcemnet in Frence TV on January 8, and a report in Le Monde, the Minister for Economic Affairs, Bruno Le Maire, has confirmed that a potential ban of E171 in food in France is under the responsibility of his Ministry. However, he considers that the currently available information on the additive was not sufficient to conclude it was actually harmful for humans.
On Sunday 27th of May, the French Government amendment No. 2557 was adopted by the National Assembly. The amendment states the Government shall take regulatory measures to suspend the placing on the market of additive E171 (titanium dioxide - TiO2) as well as foods containing it. This is based on the French Consumer Code, articles 521‑17 and also under Article 54 'Other Emergeny Measures' in EU Regulatin (EC) 178/2002 (the General Food Law Regulation).
On 18 May 2018, the French State Secretary for Ecology, Ms Brune Poirson, announced in the newspaper Le Parisien that the Government intends to implement a ban on the use of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in food products. "We want to ban, before the end of the year, the use of this substance as a food additive in France" said the State Secretary to Le Parisien. She also reminded that France had asked the European Commission for measures on titanium dioxide.
