Food additive or carcinogen? The growing list of chemicals banned by EU but used in US

Titanium dioxide is used as a whitener in an array of food – candies and pastries to cheese and gum. Photograph: Jozef Polc/Alamy

There’s a hidden ingredient used as a whitener in an array of foods, from candies and pastries to cheeses and gum. It’s called titanium dioxide, and while commonly used in the US, it’s being banned in the EU as a possible carcinogen.

The additive, also known as E171, joins a host of other chemicals that are banned in foods in the European Union but allowed in the US.