Titanium dioxide is a metal oxide used as a white pigment in many food categories, including confectionery. Due to differences in the mass fraction of nanoparticles contained in TiO2, the estimated intakes of TiO2 nanoparticles differ by a factor of 10 in the literature. To resolve this problem, a better estimation of the mass of nanoparticles present in food products is needed. In this study, we focused our efforts on chewing gum, which is one of the food products contributing most to the intake of TiO2. The coatings of four kinds of chewing gum, where the presence of TiO2 was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, were extracted in aqueous phases. The extracts were analysed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform Raman spectroscopy, and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) to establish their chemical composition, crystallinity and size distribution. The coatings of the four chewing gums differ chemically from each other, and more specifically the amount of TiO2 varies from one coating to another. TiO2 particles constitute the entire coating of some chewing gums, whereas for others, TiO2 particles are embedded in an organic matrix and/or mixed with minerals like calcium carbonate, talc, or magnesium silicate. We found 1.1 ± 0.3 to 17.3 ± 0.9 mg TiO2 particles per piece of chewing gum, with a mean diameter of 135 ± 42 nm. TiO2 nanoparticles account for 19 ± 4% of all particles, which represents a mass fraction of 4.2 ± 0.1% on average. The intake of nanoparticles is thus highly dependent on the kind of chewing gum, with an estimated range extending from 0.04 ± 0.01 to 0.81 ± 0.04 mg of nano-TiO2 per piece of chewing gum. These data should serve to refine the exposure scenario.
Keywords: E171; Titanium dioxide; chewing gum; food additive; intake; nanoparticles.