Titanium dioxide is a white metal oxide used in many food categories as food additives to provide a whitening efect. If its use complies with the ive speciications including synthesis pathway, crystallographic phase, purity, amount and innocuousness, all other parameters are not deined and were hardly documented. However, in the last 3 years, two studies have deeply characterized food-grade TiO 2 and converged to the fact that the size distribution of food-grade TiO 2 spans over the

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... range (<100 nm) and the surface is not pure TiO 2 but covered by phosphate and eventually silicon species or aluminium species, which modify the surface chemistry of these particles. Until now, this material was considered as safe. However, the toxicological studies later to the last re-evaluation by the European Food Safety Agency reveal some concerns due to the ability of TiO 2 particles to alter the intestinal barrier. This reinforces the idea to go on reinforcing the risk assessment about food-grade TiO 2 .