Acesulfame-k

Acesulfame-k appears in 124 indexed US food products. No FDA SAFFA status or CSPI rating is attached in this snapshot, so this page reports prevalence rather than a safety verdict.

What the data can answer

Acesulfame-k appears in 124 catalogued products, but this snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to it. This page therefore cannot answer whether the ingredient is safe from those sources. It can show how often it occurs, where it tends to sit on labels, and which kinds of products contain it.

124
catalogued products
#2,715
usage rank of 247,206
54
named brands represented
74%
average depth down ingredient lists

Catalog prevalence comes from Open Food Facts ingredient lists. FDA SAFFA and CSPI Chemical Cuisine labels are shown only when the source record contains them.

What this page can and cannot answer

Audit the co-occurring flags first

91.9% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Acesulfame-k as the trigger. Open records such as Aloe juice; Aloe Vera Drink; Artificially Flavored Drink Mix and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 75.6/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 74% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

91.9% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 124 of 124 NOVA-tagged records. That describes the surrounding products, not the substance. For a useful comparison, hold category and processing level constant, then inspect which named component changes alongside the caution flag; otherwise the product mix will confound the ingredient question.

Next check: open the lowest-scoring linked formulation and locate the exact caution-marked component.

Acesulfame-k sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#2,715 / 247,206)

Usage rank
#2,715
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 11 others that also appear in exactly 124 products, listed in more products than 98.9% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
74%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 124 products listing it (mean slot 11.6). Acesulfame-k usually falls in the lower half of the list; this position does not measure its amount because source formatting, compound ingredients and labeling exceptions vary.

Derived by this site from the ingredient lists of every catalogued product (Open Food Facts), recomputed on each data refresh. 247,206 ingredients have at least one appearance and are ranked here. Usage and list position describe prevalence, not safety.

What else is usually in the same product as Acesulfame-k

Across the 124 products on this site that list Acesulfame-k, these flagged additives appear alongside it most often. The comparison column is how often each one appears across every product with a parsed ingredient list, so the two figures are measured over the same set. Sucralose shows up about 16.1x more often with Acesulfame-k than in the catalogue at large.

Sucralose: +40.8ppSucralose+40.8ppAspartame: +41ppAspartame+41ppTitanium Dioxide: +26.9ppTitanium Dioxide+26.9ppBHT: +20.7ppBHT+20.7ppCarrageenan: +5.2ppCarrageenan+5.2pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Acesulfame-k products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

Unit: percentage points above/below baseline. Data current as of September 2026.

Sucralose
40.8pp
Aspartame
41pp
Titanium Dioxide
26.9pp
BHT
20.7pp
Carrageenan
5.2pp
Additive Shared products Share of Acesulfame-k products Share of all products
Sucralose 54 43.5% 2.7%
Aspartame 52 41.9% 0.9%
Titanium Dioxide 36 29% 2.1%
BHT 27 21.8% 1.1%
Carrageenan 12 9.7% 4.5%

Co-occurrence describes what manufacturers formulate together. It is not a claim that these additives interact, and it carries no regulatory meaning. Counted over products with parsed ingredient lists; Open Food Facts, 2026-09-01.

How do the sampled products compare?

Each point is one of the 16 sampled products listed below: its overall safety score against how many separately flagged ingredients its label carries. Bubble size is the number of ingredient rows the label actually resolved to.

Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Acesulfame-k

Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine. 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 16 entities by Safety score (X) and Flagged ingredients on label (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. High score, still flaggedLow score, more flaggedHigh score, fewer flaggedLow score, fewer flagged 7580859095100105 00.511.522.5 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Acesulfame-k
Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine.

Acesulfame-k vs other top-decile catalog footprints

High-volume peers for Acesulfame-k: 124 products, mean screening score 75.6/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Cooked Beans; Cultured Whole Milk; Extractive Of Turmeric. Axes below stay distinct so count-neighbors do not duplicate score-neighbors.

Similar product count

Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).

Similar mean product score

Mean product-score neighbours (≥50 scored products), kept separate from the product-count peers above.

What to do with this Acesulfame-k record

Use the 124-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.

  • Open the product sample for Acesulfame-k and read how the term sits on real packages. Browse linked labels
  • Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Open a peer record
  • Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. Read the methodology

This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.

Questions readers ask about Acesulfame-k

How should I read safety signals when Acesulfame-k sits in heavily flagged products?

91.9% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Acesulfame-k is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.

Which product shelves show up most often with Acesulfame-k?

Acesulfame-k ranks in the top decile by product count (#2,715 of 247,206), appearing in 124 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

Why is Acesulfame-k so common on ingredient lists?

The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Acesulfame-k appears in 124 products (#2,715 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Acesulfame-k). Safety ratings: CSPI Chemical Cuisine; product presence: Open Food Facts via PlainFoodSafe (September 2026). Figures are computed from those sources, no editor-typed counts. Methodology · State regulations.