About PlainFoodSafe

Our Mission

PlainFoodSafe exists to make food safety data accessible to everyone. The FDA publishes thousands of additive safety assessments, CSPI rates ingredients based on decades of toxicological research, and OpenFoodFacts catalogs ingredient lists for hundreds of thousands of products, but none of these resources are easy for a typical consumer to use.

We bridge that gap. PlainFoodSafe combines data from these three federal databases to provide ingredient-level safety analysis for over 859,000 food products sold in the United States. Our safety scores translate complex regulatory and scientific data into clear, actionable information, helping consumers, journalists, researchers, and public health professionals understand what is in their food.

Who We Are

PlainFoodSafe is a data intelligence company that builds free, open data tools powered by official government and public datasets. We are an independent data portal, we are not affiliated with the FDA, USDA, CSPI, OpenFoodFacts, or any food manufacturer or industry trade group.

Our Data Sources

PlainFoodSafe integrates data from three authoritative, publicly available sources:

• OpenFoodFacts - An open, collaborative database of food products from around the world. Product data including ingredients, nutrition facts, and barcodes are licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL). world.openfoodfacts.org
• FDA SAFFA (Substances Added to Food) - The FDA's comprehensive database of substances added to food, including GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) substances, approved food additives, and color additives. Replaces the former EAFUS database. FDA CFSAN
• CSPI Chemical Cuisine - The Center for Science in the Public Interest's guide to food additives, rating each additive based on peer-reviewed scientific evidence as Safe, Caution, Cut Back, Certain People Should Avoid, or Avoid. cspinet.org

For a detailed explanation of how we process and combine this data, see our Methodology & Data Sources page.

Safety Scores

Each product receives a safety score from 0 to 100 based on the ingredients it contains. The score considers:

• FDA regulatory status of each ingredient (GRAS, Approved, Listed, Prohibited)
• CSPI safety ratings (peer-reviewed toxicology research)
• Presence of flagged ingredients (synthetic dyes, controversial preservatives, banned substances)
• Number and severity of ingredient concerns

A higher score means fewer concerns. A score of 100 indicates no flagged ingredients and all ingredients have favorable safety profiles. Lower scores indicate the presence of ingredients with documented safety concerns. The scoring algorithm is fully documented on our methodology page.

Data Currency

PlainFoodSafe currently displays product data from the OpenFoodFacts March 2026 data export, ingredient safety classifications from the FDA SAFFA database (March 2026 release), and CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings as of March 2026.

OpenFoodFacts is a continuously updated community database, new products are added daily by contributors worldwide. We refresh our product database quarterly to incorporate new entries, updated ingredient lists, and corrected records. FDA regulatory status changes (new GRAS notices, status revisions, or prohibited substance additions) are reviewed monthly and applied to our scoring algorithm when they affect ingredient classifications.

Product formulations change frequently. A product's ingredient list on PlainFoodSafe reflects what was reported at the time of our most recent data import. Always verify against the physical product label for the most current formulation.

Data Accuracy Commitment

We take data accuracy seriously. Product information comes from the OpenFoodFacts community database, which is maintained by thousands of contributors worldwide. Ingredient safety classifications come directly from FDA regulatory records and CSPI peer-reviewed assessments.

When discrepancies are identified between our data and current product labels or regulatory status, we investigate and update at the source. Safety scores are computed by the same documented algorithm for every product, so a correction to the underlying data or rule propagates consistently across the site.

Editorial Independence

Content on PlainFoodSafe is compiled from public data. Additive regulatory status from the FDA Substances Added to Food (SAFFA) inventory, independent safety ratings from CSPI Chemical Cuisine, US state additive-restriction records, and community-contributed product data from Open Food Facts are transformed into readable profiles by a documented, version-controlled data pipeline. The PlainFoodSafe editorial team, is responsible for editorial standards, methodology, and corrections.

We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from manufacturers, brands, retailers, or any food industry entity. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense, advertisers do not influence which entities we cover or how we present data, and they do not receive preferential placement.

Limitations

Safety scores are algorithmic assessments based on available data. They do not account for individual allergies, sensitivities, medication interactions, or specific dietary needs. Product formulations change frequently and may not match current labels. See our methodology page for a complete list of limitations and caveats.

Editorial Standards

PlainFoodSafe is built and maintained through a documented editorial process. Our workflow combines original data engineering with a documented data pipeline: product and additive pages are generated directly from the source tables rather than hand-written, and our editorial team is responsible for the decisions a pipeline cannot make on its own, which datasets to use, how each metric is defined, what the methodology says, and what we will not publish. See our editorial & corrections policy for the full process.

• Data sourcing: All safety data comes from authoritative public datasets - the FDA Substances Added to Food (SAFFA) additive inventory, CSPI Chemical Cuisine independent ratings, US state-level additive restrictions on record, and the Open Food Facts product catalogue. Source provenance and last-update dates are surfaced on each dataset page.
• Editorial process: Long-form research pages and guides are drafted by our editorial team from the underlying source data, and every numeric claim is checked against the database before publication.
• Methodology page: Each long-form research page links to the methodology page, which documents calculation rules, source-table joins, and limitations.
• Corrections: When a data error is reported, we trace it to the source table, fix the derivation rule, and regenerate the affected pages so the same class of error is resolved everywhere at once. See the corrections process.

Contact

For questions, data corrections, or feedback, email hello@plainfoodsafe.com. See our contact page for more information.