Artificial Coloring
Artificial Coloring appears in 317 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
Artificial Coloring appears in 317 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.
- 317
- catalogued products
- #1,434
- usage rank of 247,206
- 117
- named brands represented
- 58%
- 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.
Reading this ingredient record
Audit the co-occurring flags first
82.6% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Artificial Coloring as the trigger. Open records such as Airport Foods, Sweet Chocolatey Peanut Trail Mix; Albrecht's Delafield Market, Cajun Crunch Mix; All American Sushi Roll and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 45.6/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 58% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
82.6% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 305 of 316 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.
Artificial Coloring: top-decile catalog footprint (#1,434 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #1,434
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 1 other that also appear in exactly 317 products, listed in more products than 99.4% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 58%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 317 products listing it (mean slot 16.2). Artificial Coloring 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 Artificial Coloring
Across the 317 products on this site that list Artificial Coloring, 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. Blue 1 shows up about 10.9x more often with Artificial Coloring than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Artificial Coloring products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue 1 | 145 | 45.7% | 4.2% |
| Yellow 5 | 143 | 45.1% | 4.8% |
| Red 40 | 132 | 41.6% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 6 | 125 | 39.4% | 3.4% |
| Blue 2 | 88 | 27.8% | 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, 2026-09-01.
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 Artificial Coloring
Products Containing Artificial Coloring
16 busy labels from the 317 indexed products that list Artificial Coloring:
Artificial Coloring vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Top-decile company for Artificial Coloring: 317 listings averaging 45.6/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Organic Peach Puree; Banana Chips; Buckwheat Flour.
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 Artificial Coloring record
317 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Artificial Coloring are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Check the listed products containing Artificial Coloring before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Open product sample
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Browse ingredient records
- Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. Open methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I read safety signals when Artificial Coloring sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
82.6% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Artificial Coloring is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Artificial Coloring? ▼
Artificial Coloring ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,434 of 247,206), appearing in 317 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Artificial Coloring so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Artificial Coloring appears in 317 products (#1,434 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Artificial Coloring). 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.