Skittles candy no longer made with controversial food additive titanium dioxide

I-Team: Skittles remove titanium dioxide from ingredients

Skittles have always been a favorite of kids, but some food safety experts have not always been a fan of the colorful candy. The FOX 5 I-Team’s Dana Fowle says that may change now that an ”offfending ingredient” has quietly been removed.

ATLANTA – Skittles is a candy that is consistently listed as a top kid’s favorite. And one of the reasons families like these sweet and tart bites as a treat is that they are safe for children with nut allergies, so that everybody can enjoy them.

But food safety experts have not always been fans of the candy. That may change now that titanium oxide has been removed without fanfare by the Mars corporation from the list of ingredients. The Center for Food Safety confirmed with the company that the formula has changed. 

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One of the markers of Skittles is how shiny and brightly colored they are. But they get that eye-catching color from the white, powdery mineral Ti02. Titanium dioxide is in more than 3,000 different products, according to the Environmental Working Group’s food score database. 

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Dig deeper:

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Titanium dioxide was FDA-approved for food in the 1960s, but the safety of the food color enhancer faced skepticism from day one. In 2016, the Mars company posted on its website that it would phase out artificial colors from its human food products as a way to meet consumer preferences. Titanium dioxide was to be eliminated in five years. It was not.  

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A class-action suit was filed in 2022 calling Skittles “unfit for human consumption.” That case was dropped without explanation.  After the election of Donald Trump, it was expected that he would appoint Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to head the US Department of Health and Human Services. He has been a vocal opponent of many artificial food additives. Food watchdogs say it’s believed titanium oxide, on Kennedy’s list for removal from the food supply, was deleted without announcement from the product’s recipe in December 2024.

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