Alginate
Alginate carries a source-backed screening score of 5/5 and appears in 47 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Safe.”
Source-backed answer
Alginate appears in 47 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Safe.” No FDA SAFFA status is attached. Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 47
- catalogued products
- #5,183
- usage rank of 248,027
- 27
- named brands represented
- 65%
- 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.
5/5 from FDA SAFFA + CSPI Chemical Cuisine
Where Alginate sits among catalogued ingredients
- Usage rank
- #5,183
- of 248,027 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 83 others that also appear in exactly 47 products.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 65%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 47 products listing it (mean slot 23.6). Alginate 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. 248,027 ingredients have at least one appearance and are ranked here. Usage and list position describe prevalence, not safety.
How to use this page
Audit the co-occurring flags first
61.7% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Alginate as the trigger. Open records such as 2 Layer Cake; 2 Layer Italian Cream Cake; Apple strudel and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 77.1/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 65% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 42 of 47 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.
What else is usually in the same product as Alginate
Across the 47 products on this site that list Alginate, 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. Polysorbate 60 shows up about 19.8x more often with Alginate than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Alginate products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polysorbate 60 | 13 | 27.7% | 1.4% |
| Red 40 | 10 | 21.3% | 5.4% |
| Propyl Gallate | 8 | 17% | 0.2% |
| Yellow 5 | 8 | 17% | 4.8% |
| Blue 2 | 7 | 14.9% | 0.9% |
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, 2026-08-02.
Function
Thickener
Safety Profile at a Glance
| Source | Classification | Year |
|---|---|---|
| FDA SAFFA | Not listed | 2024 |
| CSPI Chemical Cuisine | Safe | 2024 |
| PlainFoodSafe Score | 5/5 | 2026 |
| Product footprint | 47 products | OpenFoodFacts |
FDA SAFFA database, CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings, OpenFoodFacts product index. See methodology.
Products Containing Alginate
A sample of 16 of the 47 indexed products containing Alginate, with each product's overall safety score.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Alginate safe to eat? ▼
Alginate has a PlainFoodSafe ingredient-screening score of 5/5. CSPI rates it "Safe." These labels are not a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific safety determination.
What products contain Alginate? ▼
Alginate is found in 47 products in our database, spanning various food categories and brands.
What does Alginate do in food? ▼
Alginate is used as a thickener in food products.
Citation notes
Regulatory status from FDA SAFFA; safety ratings from CSPI Chemical Cuisine; product presence from Open Food Facts. See our methodology. Retrieved and formatted by PlainFoodSafe.Every figure on PlainFoodSafe is rendered directly from OpenFoodFacts and FDA data, no number is typed in by an editor. Ingredient figures are computed directly from OpenFoodFacts, FDA SAFFA, and CSPI Chemical Cuisine data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.
