Title
Characterization of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in food products: Analytical methods to define nanoparticles
Author
Peters, R.J.B.
van Bemmel, G.
Herrera-Rivera, Z.
Helsper, H.P.F.G.
Marvin, H.J.P.
Weigel, S.
Tromp, P.C.
Oomen, A.G.
Rietveld, A.G.
Bouwmeester, H.
Publication year
2014
Abstract
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a common food additive used to enhance the white color, brightness, and sometimes flavor of a variety of food products. In this study 7 food grade TiO2 materials (E171), 24 food products, and 3 personal care products were investigated for their TiO 2 content and the number-based size distribution of TiO2 particles present in these products. Three principally different methods have been used to determine the number-based size distribution of TiO2 particles: electron microscopy, asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation combined with inductively coupled mass spectrometry, and single-particle inductively coupled mass spectrometry. The results show that all E171 materials have similar size distributions with primary particle sizes in the range of 60-300 nm. Depending on the analytical method used, 10-15% of the particles in these materials had sizes below 100 nm. In 24 of the 27 foods and personal care products detectable amounts of titanium were found ranging from 0.02 to 9.0 mg TiO2/g product. The number-based size distributions for TiO 2 particles in the food and personal care products showed that 5-10% of the particles in these products had sizes below 100 nm, comparable to that found in the E171 materials. Comparable size distributions were found using the three principally different analytical methods. Although the applied methods are considered state of the art, they showed practical size limits for TiO 2 particles in the range of 20-50 nm, which may introduce a significant bias in the size distribution because particles <20 nm are excluded. This shows the inability of current state of the art methods to support the European Union recommendation for the definition of nanomaterials. © 2014 American Chemical Society.
Subject
Earth / Environmental
AEC - Applied Environmental Chemistry
ELSS - Earth, Life and Social Sciences
Food and Nutrition
Health
Healthy Living
AF4
food additive
ICP-MS
nanomaterial
single-particle ICP-MS
titanium dioxide
Characterization
Electromagnetic induction
Food additives
Food products
Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
Mass spectrometers
Nanoparticles
Nanostructured materials
Oxides
Size distribution
AF4
ICP-MS
Inductively coupled mass spectrometries
Nanomaterial
Personal care products
Single-particle
State-of-the-art methods
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles
Titanium dioxide
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d689d15e-31f9-4cc2-9a83-b436ac31fc61
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/jf5011885
TNO identifier
513444
Publisher
American Chemical Society
ISSN
1520-5118
Source
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 62 (27), 6285-6293
Document type
article