The Growing Market Need for Titanium Dioxide Alternatives
The Impending EU Ban on Titanium Dioxide as a Food Additive Motivates Need for Market Alternatives
Impacting the aesthetics of many food and beverage products, white is a widely used “colour.” Applications are varied and encompass a wide variety, including confectionery, soups, meat analogues, pet food and coatings. As titanium dioxide is brilliantly white and benefits from strong performance at low usage rates, it was the most widely used solution across the food and beverage landscape. However, scrutiny and pushback from consumer advocacy groups and regulatory bodies across the globe continues to create uncertainty and controversy over the safety of titanium dioxide.
The official enactment of France’s ban on titanium dioxide beginning January 1, 2020, heightened the global conversation in the food and beverage industry, while the updated assessment by The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) determined that E171 can no longer be considered as safe for human consumption and have proposed a full ban to be implemented in the EU by the end of 2022.
This has spurred manufacturers and developers worldwide to seek out clean label alternatives.
For years, Sensient has followed this development. To meet market demand, Sensient’s global Avalanche™ portfolio was developed to address the need to replace titanium dioxide when looking for whitening effects or opacity:
As titanium dioxide is highly versatile in application, any sort of replacement will be limited to certain applications or may also be limited to certain geographic regions. Sensient has developed a full global portfolio of Avalanche™ products – the industry’s leading suite of titanium dioxide alternatives.
Designed to best match the performance of titanium dioxide while addressing clean-labelled ingredient trends, the portfolio consists of whitening and opacifying solutions for a wide breadth of applications, and we are constantly innovating to improve the performance and cost-in-use for developers.
Addressing the Challenges Associated with Replacing Titanium Dioxide
Titanium dioxide has a few key advantages over many alternatives that can present challenges for replacement opportunities, but high-performing alternative portfolios like Avalanche™ help developers and manufacturers to close the gap on key technical challenges:
TITANIUM DIOXIDE
TiO2 is extremely stable and permissible in many applications. With its mineral genetic makeup, titanium dioxide positively resists moisture hold in applications, resulting in a smooth surface.
ALTERNATIVES
Today’s market alternatives are not permitted across a wide range of applications like titanium dioxide and stability varies from product to product. Some replacement options, such as rice starch, retain moisture and prevent effective drying, which can have a negative mottled impact on product surfaces.
To address performance and regulatory variance, Avalanche™ was designed as a portfolio of solutions versus a one-size fits all approach. Sensient’s colour experts can identify the best Avalanche™ option to fit your application’s processing conditions and regulatory adherence.
TITANIUM DIOXIDE
As a mineral, TiO2 is extremely cost-effective compared to many botanical alternatives.
ALTERNATIVES
Common market alternatives like rice starch and calcium carbonate require extremely high usage rates compared to titanium dioxide which not only impact the cost of the final formula but most often negatively affect the texture of an application. Rice starch may thicken a formulation undesirably, resulting in an adverse effect in viscosity.
The products in the Avalanche™ portfolio are designed to perform and function differently across applications making price points vary, but our R&D team is constantly working to lower cost-in-use and reduce negative mouthfeel effects due to higher usage rates compared to titanium dioxide.
Tips for Success with Sensient’s Avalanche™ Portfolio
Don’t be discouraged by negative experiences with other alternatives! Avalanche™ isn’t like other titanium replacers, and we’ve seen success in formulas and processing that proved incompatible with other whitening solutions.
Avalanche™ is a portfolio, rather than a single “golden ticket” product, which has enabled us to create optimized solutions for various applications and processing conditions. If one Avalanche™ product didn’t work for you, another option might!
Avalanche™ is very clean-label but regional permissibility of some ingredients may vary. Sensient’s regulatory team can help provide guidance on how to label it in your market.
Our team of technical experts can give personalized guidance on successful implementation of Avalanche™ solutions to ensure minimum impact on your process and guide you through the formulation, testing, and scale-up process.
Avalanche™ is higher stability than individual components available such as rice starch. It’s engineered for success.
Avalanche™ is ever-evolving. We are continuously making improvements on cost and functionality, so even if you’ve tried it before, reach out again to see our latest solutions!
Even if you may have tried one Avalanche™ solution before, don’t think you’ve seen it all! We are constantly evolving and improving our global portfolio. If you’re ready to jump into solutions, request a sample and our technical experts will send you the optimal Avalanche™ product for your application.
Questions? Feel free to reach out to schedule a consultation! We understand replacing titanium dioxide can be extremely challenging and we are here to help.
