Titandioxide has been banned as a food additive in the EU since 2022, because these nanoparticles are considered cell -damaging and potentially carcinogenic. But you still get into our food and drink via the environment and the food chain. This is now confirmed by analyzes of milk, baby milk preparations and breast milk: In all examined samples, researching titanium dioxide nanoparticles demonstrated, partly in concentrations of up to several billion nanoparticles per liter. Whether organic or conventional made no difference.
Nano-Tatandioxide is used in various everyday products-from colors to sun milk and cosmetics to medicinal products. By 2022, these white nanoparticles were also used as an additive E171 in food – for example as a brightener in chewing gum, icing and ready -made sauces or as a nanobic lighting of cut cheese and confectionery. But in recent years, studies have been providing more and more evidence that the titanium dioxide nanoparticles are harmful to health. Accordingly, when you inhale and with oral intake, you can penetrate deep into tissue and cells and trigger inflammation, cell damage and cancer. You can also accumulate in body tissues. That is why the EU banned titanium dioxide as a food additive in 2022. However, it is further allowed in other products.
Animal milk, baby milk preparations and breast milk in the test
However, the problem: Due to the industrial production of titanium dioxide and its mass use in colors and fertilizers, these nanoparticles have long been present everywhere in the environment. They have proven analyzes in sea water, lakes and rivers, but also in the air, in floors and even occasionally in drinking water. This suggests that the titanium dioxide via the environment also gets into the food chain and thus into our food. Whether this is the case and to what extent, researchers around Camille Rivard from the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (Inrae) have now examined the example of milk. “Milk is a good indicator of the stress of people and farm animals with environmental pollutants, but so far it has not yet been examined for titanium dioxide nanoparticles,” explains the team.
For their study, Rivard and her colleagues initially collected milk samples, the cow’s milk came from various conventional and ecological economy farms in the surrounding area of Paris, all dairy cows were grazing with concentrate feeding and belonging to various breeds of cattle. Milk powder samples were bought in several supermarkets and online shops in Europe, the milk preparations for baby food came from six manufacturers and also included both conventional and ecological products. Ten women from Paris and the Paris surrounding area donated breast milk for the examination. All samples were examined using X-ray spectroscopy and mass spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-MS).
Titandioxide nanoparticles in all samples
“We found titanium particles in all analyzed milk samples,” report the researchers. Most of these particles proved to be a titanium dioxide, which was mostly concentrated in numerous “hotspots” within the milk samples. On average, around a third of the titanium dioxide particles had the size of nanoparticles, the remaining goods of aggregates from nanoparticles or microparticles, such as Rivard and their team, report. The titanium dioxide nanoparticles below 100 nanometers, which are considered harmful to health, were found in 100 percent of the fresh milk samples examined and in 83 percent of the baby milk preparations-regardless of whether they came from conventional or ecological production. The concentrations in baby milk preparations ranged from six million to 3.9 billion titanium dioxide particles per liter, with fresh milk and milk powder it was between 16 and 348 million titanium dioxide nanoparticles per liter.
Rivard and her colleagues also found what they were looking for in breast milk: Titanial dioxide nanoparticles were contained in the rehearsals of all ten breastfeeding women, but the concentration varied greatly, as reported. The breast milk of some women contained up to 15 times more nanoparticles than others. “This evidence proves that titanium dioxide nanoparticles can pass the mammary gland barrier,” the researchers write. Attempts with rats and mice have shown that newborn young animals developed organ changes, reduced growth and learning disabilities if they were suckled by mothers that were exposed to titanium dioxide nanoparticles.
Follow studies urgently needed
According to Rivard and her colleagues, it is therefore important to further investigate the possible consequences of the burden. “Our results underline the need for large -scale epidemiological studies to determine the stress of breast milk and animal milk. Likewise, connections with the health and development of newborns as well as possible long -term consequences in adulthood should be examined,” they write. With regard to the causes of contamination, the researchers assume that the nanoparticles mainly from the environmental tamet – in the case of the cows of water, floors and air. “In humans, additional titanium dioxide sources can be responsible, such as everyday products such as cosmetics, toothpaste, food, medicinal products, peeling colors and paints on buildings, industrial activities or traffic and road dust,” explain the researchers.
Source: Inrae – National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment; Specialist articles: Science of the Total Environment, DOI: 10.1016/J.Scitotenv.2025.180040
