Estimation of Titanium Dioxide Intake by Diet and Stool Assessment among US Healthy Adults

Abstract

Background Titanium dioxide (TiO2/E171) is used in foods primarily as a whitening agent. Little is known regarding TiO2 exposure in the U.S. Objective To quantify stool TiO2 content among U.S. adults and evaluate its association with estimated intake. Methods Adults participated in phase 1 (three, 24h dietary recalls (DR) and stool TiO2 measured from three matched samples (n = 52)) and/or phase 2 (tailored food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and stool TiO2 measured from three samples over 3 mo (n = 61)). TiO2 in foods was estimated from a database, and concentration in 49 additional foods and 339 stool samples were quantified using ICP-MS. Associations between dietary and stool TiO2 were assessed by log-linear multivariable regression. USDA food groups (n = 49, servings/d) were related to stool TiO2 by stepwise regression. Results TiO2 food content varied by brand. Mean TiO2 intake from three, 24hDR (0.19±0.31 mg/(kg BW · d)) was lower than from the FFQ (0.30±0.21 mg/(kg BW · d)). Dietary TiO2 was not predictive of stool TiO2, in phase 1 or phase 2, 10^(β) per 10-times higher dietary TiO2: 1.138 ((10^(95% CI): 0.635, 2.037, P = 0.66) and 0.628 (0.206, 1.910, P = 0.41), respectively. Food groups related to stool TiO2 were 1) milk desserts, sauces, gravies (10^(β) per servings/day = 3.361; 10^(95% CI): 0.312, 36.163, P = 0.002) and 2) yeast breads (10^(β) = 1.430; 0.709, 2.884, P = 0.002) in phase 1; and, in phase 2, 1) cream, cream substitutes (10^(β) = 10.925; 1.952, 61.137, P = 0.01), and 2) milk and milk drinks (10^(β) = 0.306; 0.086, 1.092, P = 0.07). Conclusion Intake of certain foods were associated with higher stool TiO2 content. There is a need for valid estimation of TiO2 intakes via the improvement of a dietary assessment methods and a TiO2 food composition database. Future research should assess whether high stool TiO2 content is related to adverse health outcomes.

Complementary in vitro and in vivo strategies to assess the biological effects of the nano enabled food additives E171 and E551

“…In order to contextualize these doses, we used the estimated human daily intake (EDI) and their equivalent dose in Caco-2 cell defined by Sohal et al (2020) 28 and Putra et al (2022). 29 We transformed our doses (10 and 100 μg mL −1 ) to the same units (μg cm −2 ) for intestinal cells to obtain equivalent EDIs (Table S1†). Following a similar procedure, we calculated the dose range/surface and the equivalent of EDI for Drosophila melanogaster , using estimated values for food intake 30 and midgut surface.…”

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles induce apoptosis through ROS‐Ca2+‐p38/AKT/mTOR pathway in TM4 cells

“…Global production of TiO 2 NPs was estimated to reach approximately 2.5 million metric tons by 2025 (Ahamed et al, 2020). Analysis of US grocery store data suggested that the dietary intake of TiO 2 could be as high as 5 mg/kg body weight per day from food products (Putra et al, 2022). Moreover, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) estimated that the maximum level of exposure to E171, a food‐grade TiO 2 , occurs in children between the ages of 3 to 9, who ingest an average of 1.9 to 11.5 mg/kg body weight per day (Cornu et al, 2022).…”