\n<\/p>\n
Last month, America\u2019s top health officials gathered in downtown Washington for an ice-cream party. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2014joined by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins\u2014hunched over a cooler and served himself a scoop. Off to the side, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary licked a cone. There was a reason to celebrate: The dairy industry, like many of America\u2019s largest food makers, had acquiesced to the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d movement\u2019s crackdown on synthetic food dyes. The International Dairy Foods Association, a lobbying group, announced that more than 40 major ice-cream companies would begin phasing out several dyes that RFK Jr. has blamed for a slew of chronic-health problems, especially in children. \u201cI\u2019m very grateful for this industry for stepping up,\u201d Kennedy told onlookers.<\/p>\n
By the end of 2027, Hershey\u2019s birthday-cake ice cream won\u2019t have Yellow 5 or Red 40, nor will its \u201cblue moon\u201d flavor have Blue 1. But your ice cream might still come with one particular artificial food dye: titanium dioxide, a chemical that turns food white and isn\u2019t included in the International Dairy Foods Association\u2019s \u201cIce Cream Commitment.\u201d (Yes, the milk in ice cream already is white to begin with, but titanium dioxide helps keep some ice cream with added ingredients from looking like the muddied leftover milk in a bowl of cereal.) Titanium dioxide is added to many other foods, too, including salad dressings, low-fat milks, and soups. So far, the chemical seems to be largely surviving the food-dye purge. Many companies\u2014including Kraft Heinz and General Mills\u2014don\u2019t mention titanium dioxide in their promises to replace similar dyes. (Neither company responded to multiple requests for comment.)<\/p>\n
You might be eating more titanium dioxide than you think. Even food that isn\u2019t white might contain it. The chemical is commonly used as a base layer\u2014kind of like primer on a wall\u2014to make brightly colored products pop. It\u2019s not always named as an ingredient in foods that are made with the dye. Other synthetic dyes, such as Red 40 and Yellow 5, which are made from petroleum, must be disclosed on a product\u2019s nutrition label. (That\u2019s also true for several other dyes that end in a number.) The FDA, however, allows food companies to simply label titanium dioxide as an \u201cartificial color,\u201d given that technically titanium is a mineral.<\/p>\n
Food makers argue that this distinction demonstrates that titanium dioxide is not like other dyes. The International Dairy Foods Association told me that it\u2019s \u201cfocused on removing certified artificial colors\u201d when I asked whether the group\u2019s pledge included titanium dioxide. A spokesperson for the Consumer Brands Association, a major lobbying group that recently announced a food-dye pledge of its own, similarly said that the numbered dyes \u201care a unique subset.\u201d Whether people really should fret about titanium dioxide while licking an ice-cream cone is a contentious question. In 2022, the European Union banned the dye over concerns that tiny particles in the product could build up in the body and damage DNA. But the decision wasn\u2019t based on clear evidence that links the chemical to specific ailments. Rather, European officials identified \u201csome data gaps and uncertainties\u201d about the dye\u2019s health impacts, and acted out of an abundance of caution.<\/p>\n
The evidence against titanium dioxide isn\u2019t much different from that against other artificial dyes. Food makers have stopped using the numbered dyes based solely on preliminary science. Prior to Kennedy\u2019s confirmation, many of the same organizations that are now touting the food industry\u2019s efforts to remove synthetic dyes were arguing that requests to ban these ingredients were scientifically flawed. In 2023, the Consumer Brands Association, alongside two other trade groups, argued that the FDA should not ban Red 3, because the science around its health harms was unconvincing.<\/p>\n
Kennedy has indicated that he does want to phase out titanium dioxide along with other synthetic dyes, pointing to the European ban. Titanium dioxide is listed as a food additive of concern in a report on childhood chronic disease recently released by the Trump administration\u2019s MAHA Commission. (\u201cHHS takes the safety of food ingredients seriously and will continue to review available evidence and expert guidance on this and other additives,\u201d a Health and Human Services spokesperson told me in an email.) MAHA has had some victories when it comes to titanium dioxide. At the end of last year, the food giant Mars removed the chemical from Skittles. The ice-cream company Turkey Hill, which joined the dairy industry\u2019s dye pledge, is in the process of purging its products of titanium dioxide, a spokesperson said. (The company did not respond after I asked when that transition would be complete.) A representative for PepsiCo told me that the company is phasing out titanium dioxide in the one product it sells that includes the chemical: Muscle Milk. But many more companies that are replacing other artificial food dyes have been quiet about titanium dioxide.<\/p>\n
The food industry is reluctant to give the chemical up for a reason. It\u2019s remarkably efficient as a food dye\u2014nothing else comes close to its ability to turn food white. (No wonder versions of the chemical are also used in house paint.) The main replacement is calcium carbonate, also known as chalk, which is much less opaque, and so food companies would need to use much more of it to get the same whitening effect. This could not only make products more expensive, it could impact the texture and taste of the underlying food. Some companies have<\/em> successfully been able to reformulate their products: Skittles look the same as they always have. \u201cThese reformulations are not easy and can sometimes take months to years to accomplish adequately,\u201d Dave Schoneker, a food-dye consultant, told me. \u201cThis ends up being a big investment.\u201d Not every company will have a bench of food scientists able to spend years reformulating its products.<\/p>\n Without titanium dioxide, consumers may just have to get used to uglier food. At one point while working on this story, I went to the grocery store and picked up two blue-cheese dressings\u2014one with titanium dioxide and one without. The version with the additive looked like what I expected <\/em>blue-cheese dressing to look like: pearly white. The other one looked a bit like grayish-green mucus.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not a proposition that excites the food industry, nor is it something that companies seem to believe Americans can handle. As California prepared to become the first state to ban several food additives in 2023, titanium dioxide was removed from the legislation at the eleventh hour amid vocal opposition from food companies. Before caving to pressure, Mars had resisted calls for the company to stop using artificial dyes in sweets; instead, the company settled on doing so just in Europe, citing that it\u2019s where \u201cconsumers have expressed this preference.\u201d Indeed, European consumers are \u201cokay with muted tones,\u201d Chari Rai, the head of innovation for\u00a0 North America at Oterra, a natural-color manufacturer, told me. “I think the difference in the U.S. market is they\u2019re just so used to seeing vibrant colors.\u201d<\/p>\n If the industry is correct and Kennedy cannot persuade Americans to embrace an ugly scoop of ice cream, that would signal he\u2019s going to have an even harder time pushing Americans away from foods containing the many other ingredients that he claims, with varying degrees of evidence, are making people sick. Food dyes are just cosmetic. (Ice cream still generally tastes the same with or without titanium dioxide.) Other food additives, such as emulsifiers and low-calorie sweeteners, serve a bigger role; ultra-processed foods, which Kennedy opposes, make up a sizable portion of the American diet. MAHA still has much bigger battles to fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last month, America\u2019s top health officials gathered in downtown Washington for an ice-cream party. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2014joined by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins\u2014hunched over a cooler and served himself a scoop. Off to the side, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary licked a cone. 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