Taste the rainbow of titanium dioxide the next time you satisfy your sweet tooth with a bag of colorful Skittles, the sugary candy at the center of a lawsuit in which a California man claims the candy is unfit for human consumption, the Washington Post reports.
The Food and Drug Administration allows manufacturers to use titanium dioxide as a coloring agent so long as the amount used is less than one percent of the overall weight of the product. However, the chemical does not exit the body entirely after consumption, and toxic buildup of titanium dioxide can cause genotoxicity, a modification of DNA, and has been linked to cancer.
Mars, the company that makes Skittles, stated in 2016 that it would phase out the use of artificial coloring, including titanium dioxide, within the following five years. It hasn’t. The class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of San Leandro resident Jenile Thames, states that Mars’ failure to disclose the fact that it is continuing to use the chemical is a fraud by omission.