Published 6 May 2021 Link
EFSA has updated its safety assessment of the food additive titanium dioxide (E 171), following a request by the European Commission in March 2020.
Following their previous report from 2016 which highlighted the need for more research to fill data gaps, EFSA has now updated the evaluation of E-171 taking into account all current available data. According to EFSA one main driver to reach this conclusion was genotoxicity concerns after ingesting the particles, since particles may accumulate in the body. Based on these concerns they could not establish a safe level for daily intake of the food additive This update takes into account several studies published after their 2016 report. This report follows a report by the French Agency for Food, Environment and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) stating the uncertainties and data gaps regarding E-171 as well as a report published by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) which delivered an opinion on the possible health effects of E-171 highlighting the immunotoxicological effects in addition to potential reprotoxicological effects.
EFSA scientific experts applied for the first time the 2018 EFSA Scientific Committee Guidance on Nanotechnology to the safety assessment of food additives.
The document can be downloaded here
