Notice of the disappearance of E171 in the United States

Bloomberg USA reveals that Mars has been removing E171 from its Skittles since late 2024

In the USA, Mars has removed titanium dioxide from its Skittles, the famous fruity-tasting candy. The announcement, made by Bloomberg News¹cf. Skittles Removes Titanium Dioxide, Additive Targeted by RFK Jr.., Bloomberg, May 20, 2025 was widely reported by the English-language specialist media² cf. Mars removes titanium dioxide from US Skittles amid regulatory pressure, Food & Drink International, May 29, 2025 ; Mars Removes Titanium Dioxide from Skittles in the United States, Food Safety Magazine, May 29, 2025 Skittles quietly drops titanium dioxide as food industry reduces chemicals,Food Safety News, May 30, 22025 ; Mars moves to remove titanium dioxide additives from US Skittles, Confectionery Production, June 2, 2025, … but also general³cf. Fox News, MSN, ConsumerAffairs, BBC News, … up to Indian media⁴ cf. Today, NDTV, ….

An additive in the spotlight in the United States since its ban in Europe in 2022

As a reminder, this colorant has been banned in France since January 2020, and throughout the European Union since January 2022.

In July 2022, in the United States, the media reported on a consumer complaint filed in federal court in the Northern District of California against Mars, whose Skittles candies contain E171.

In April 2023, Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel brandished a packet of Skittles in the California Assembly⁵cf. Bill To Ban Five Common Food Additives Passed In Assembly Health Committee 12-1, California Globe, April 12, 2023 to call for a ban on five food additives, including E171. His gesture was reminiscent of that of European deputy José Bové who, in March 2015 on the set of BFM TV, brandished a packet of M&M’s (also Mars brand)⁶cf. José Bové attacks M&M’s: “You don’t need to eat this crap!”, BFM TV, March 17, 2015.

Three and a half years after the anti-malbouffe activist’s stunt, in December 2018, Mars had announced the withdrawal of E171 from its M&M’s in Francecf⁷. La production française de M&M’s se fera sans dioxyde de titane, L’info durable,December 13, 2018…. preceding by a few months the ban by the French authorities in April 2019cf⁸. Arrêté du 17 avril 2019 portant suspension de la mise sur le marché des denrées contenant l’additif E 171 (dioxyde de titane – TiO2).

→ Will E171 meet the same fate in the USA?

Jaydee Hanson, from the NGO Center for Food Safety (CFS), welcomes Mars’ decision as “a step in the right direction”. But he demands that “all other U.S. companies take this carcinogenic additive out of foods and medicines”⁹cf. Mars Finally Removes Titanium Dioxide from Skittles After Decade of CFS Advocacy, Center for Food Safety, May 29, 2025.

E171 ban under study at FDA level and in a dozen US states

CFS is one of the American NGOs¹⁰with Environmental Defense Fund, Center for Environmental Health, Center for Science in the Public Interest and Environmental Working Group that filed a formal petition with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2023, calling for a ban on titanium dioxide in food. Two years later, the procedure has not yet been completed, but the FDA announced in mid-May that it would “accelerate” the review of this substance¹¹(along with phthalates and propylparaben) cf. FDA Advances Robust, Transparent Post-Market Chemical Review Program to Keep Food Supply Safe and Healthy, FDA, May 15, 2025.

Faced with a wait-and-see attitude on the part of the federal government, bills to ban E171¹²alongside other food additives have been introduced in a dozen U.S. states since 2023¹³Arizona, California, North and South Carolina, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, … See the list regularly updated by EWG .

What about titanium dioxide in medicines?

This request to the FDA and the bills concern only food at this stage, but the federations of manufacturers of excipients, drugs and/or dietary supplements have mobilized against it¹⁴cf. the contributions of CHPA, IPEC-Americas, IQ Consortium, Black Diamond Regulatory Consulting, to the consultation launched by the FDA in 2023 following the NGO request.

They want to prevent the ban on TiO2 in food leading to the revocation of the use of TiO2 in medicines as in Europe… even if, on our continent too, intense lobbying seems to have been deployed by pharmaceutical laboratories to slow down the process.
→ It has been almost four months since the European Commission was due to rule on the renewal – or otherwise – of the authorization of E171 in medicines, but we’re still waiting for its decision…