Skittles: No Titanium Dioxide, but Still a Petroleum-Based Rainbow

Do Skittles seem a little less shiny this year? Can you still taste the rainbow?

If you haven’t noticed, Mars Inc. removed at least one controversial ingredient often included in the synthetic colorant debate – titanium dioxide – from the colorful candy, although a handful of synthetic dyes remain.

Titanium dioxide was removed from all Skittles production at the end of last year, the company told Bloomberg News. It apparently was used to brighten the colors and make the candy appear shiny.

But other synthetic color additives targeted by FDA for a voluntary phaseout – or specified for outright ban in some states – remain: Blue 1 & 2, Red 40 and Yellow 5 & 6.

Titanium dioxide was banned in the European Union in 2022 over concerns that nanoparticles of the substance might accumulate in the body and damage DNA, according to Bloomberg. Here in the U.S., TiO2 has been included in some upcoming state bans, was removed at the last minute from others and has been in the crosshairs of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy.

The ingredient was mentioned as a danger in the May 22 MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) Report and was among the hit-list in a May 15 FDA announcement that the agency was creating its first post-market review for food chemicals.

A citizens petition asking titanium dioxide’s removal from the food supply was filed in 2023 and remains under review by the FDA.