Dunkin' Donuts Will Remove Whitening Agent, Titanium Dioxide, From Its Pastries

huffingtonpost.com If powdered donuts, complete with white stuff stuck to your fingers and sprinkled on your lap, inspire nostalgic memories of childhood, you might have been eating something you weren't quite intending. Luckily, that will soon change. Dunkin' Donuts has agreed to gradually stop using titanium dioxide, the ingredient that makes powdered sugar doughnuts so white. The shift came after a request from As You Sow, a self-identified nonprofit that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility. The group published a press release along with a letter from Dunkin' Brands on their website on March 5. Titanium dioxide is a common whitener in many processed foods. Many candies, pastries, chewing gums and processed foods Americans consume on a daily basis contain the ingredient. The FDA allows products to contain up to one percent of the ingredient without noting so on its label. As You Sow has identified the whitening agent as a "nanoparticle" -- a substance that the organization claims can be toxic to humans.