Agar-agar
Agar-agar appears in 491 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
Agar-agar appears in 491 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.
- 491
- catalogued products
- #1,052
- usage rank of 247,206
- 137
- named brands represented
- 73%
- 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
62.3% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Agar-agar as the trigger. Open records such as 12" lattice apple pie; 16 Count Fruit Flavored Variety Pack; 3" lemon drop and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 73.1/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 73% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
62.3% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 491 of 491 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.
Agar-agar: top-decile catalog footprint (#1,052 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #1,052
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 1 other that also appear in exactly 491 products, listed in more products than 99.6% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 73%
- Averaged label depth puts Agar-agar in the lower half of the list (73% of list length, mean slot 29.8). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.
Computed from parsed product ingredient lists (Open Food Facts). The ranking covers 247,206 ingredients that appear at least once. Neither usage rank nor label depth is a safety clearance.
What else is usually in the same product as Agar-agar
Across the 491 products on this site that list Agar-agar, 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. Red 40 shows up about 5.6x more often with Agar-agar than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Agar-agar products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red 40 | 149 | 30.3% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 105 | 21.4% | 4.8% |
| Blue 1 | 104 | 21.2% | 4.2% |
| Polysorbate 60 | 99 | 20.2% | 1.4% |
| Carrageenan | 90 | 18.3% | 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 Agar-agar
Products Containing Agar-agar
High-volume slice (16 of 491) for products naming Agar-agar:
High-volume peers for Agar-agar beside “Corn Starch-modified”
Top-decile company for Agar-agar: 491 listings averaging 73.1/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Corn Starch-modified; Includes Blue 1 Lake; Dehydrated Onion And Garlic.
Similar product count
Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).
Similar mean product score
Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.
What to do with this Agar-agar record
491 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Agar-agar are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Check the listed products containing Agar-agar before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. See listed products
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Open a peer record
- Check the methodology for how FDA SAFFA, CSPI, and Open Food Facts rows are joined on this site. 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 Agar-agar
How should I read safety signals when Agar-agar sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
62.3% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Agar-agar is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Agar-agar? ▼
Agar-agar ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,052 of 247,206), appearing in 491 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Agar-agar so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Agar-agar appears in 491 products (#1,052 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Agar-agar). 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.