Food Safety Guides
In-depth research and analysis on food ingredient safety, FDA regulations, and brand accountability, backed by data from 859,000+ products.
The FDA Food Dye Ban: What's Being Removed and When
Complete timeline of the FDA's synthetic food dye phase-out, company removal pledges, affected products, and state-level actions.
How to Read Food Labels for Safety: A Data-Driven Guide
Learn to decode ingredient lists using FDA regulatory status and CSPI safety ratings. Understand what safety scores mean and what to watch for.
Safest Food Brands in America, Data Analysis of 36,000+ Brands
Data-driven ranking of the safest and most concerning food brands based on ingredient safety scores across 859,000+ products.
States Banning Food Additives: Complete Regulation Tracker
Track which states have banned food additives, pending legislation, and how state actions compare to federal FDA policy.
How Food Safety Scores Work: What the Numbers Actually Mean
Learn how PlainFoodSafe calculates safety scores, what drives them up or down, and how to use them for smarter grocery decisions.
Controversial Preservatives in US Food: What the Data Shows
BHA, BHT, TBHQ, sodium nitrite, and sodium benzoate, what the regulatory and scientific data says about each one.
Children's Food Safety: What Parents Should Know About Additives
Children are more vulnerable to food additive effects. Learn which additives raise the most concern for kids and how to evaluate products.
How do we source these guides?
Our guides draw on public data, the FDA Substances Added to Food (SAFFA) inventory, CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings, US state additive-restriction records, and the Open Food Facts product database. Every figure is sourced. Statistics, ratings, and scores come directly from those datasets, referenced inline so each claim traces back to its origin.
The aim is plain language. We translate dense regulatory data into explanations a general reader can act on, and when methodologies differ between sources or change over time, we flag the variation where it appears. Our editorial process includes regular reviews to keep figures accurate and current.