Ascorbic Acid
Ascorbic Acid carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 28,168 indexed US food products.
Source-backed answer
Ascorbic Acid appears in 28,168 catalogued products. CSPI has no rating attached in this snapshot. Its FDA SAFFA status is “GRAS.” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 28,168
- catalogued products
- #28
- usage rank of 247,206
- 3,885
- named brands represented
- 68%
- 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.
Ascorbic Acid sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#28 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #28
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 68%
- Averaged label depth puts Ascorbic Acid in the lower half of the list (68% of list length, mean slot 15.5). 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.
Reading this ingredient record
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 8171 of 28168 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare 0016500579793; 1% low fat milk; 1% Lowfat Milk to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to Ascorbic Acid itself. The ingredient most often sits in the lower half of the list, and Plant-based foods and beverages supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
8171 of 28,168 linked records have some flagged component
All 27414 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 0–100 score spread more informative than the average alone: investigate the low end, identify the actual flagged row, and compare it with a similar unflagged formulation before drawing a conclusion.
Next check: pair one flagged product with a similar unflagged product from the same shelf category.
What else is usually in the same product as Ascorbic Acid
Across the 28,168 products on this site that list Ascorbic Acid, 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.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Ascorbic Acid products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red 40 | 2,048 | 7.3% | 5.4% |
| Sucralose | 1,933 | 6.9% | 2.7% |
| Caramel Coloring | 1,494 | 5.3% | 5.7% |
| Blue 1 | 1,446 | 5.1% | 4.2% |
| Carrageenan | 1,340 | 4.8% | 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.
Function
ANTIMICROBIAL AGENT, ANTIOXIDANT, COLOR OR COLORING ADJUNCT, DOUGH STRENGTHENER, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, NUTRIENT SUPPLEMENT, PH CONTROL AGENT, SEQUESTRANT, STABILIZER OR THICKENER
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 Ascorbic Acid
Products Containing Ascorbic Acid
High-volume slice (16 of 28,168) for products naming Ascorbic Acid:
High-volume peers for Ascorbic Acid beside “Palm Oil”
Top-decile company for Ascorbic Acid: 28,168 listings averaging 90.4/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Palm Oil; Whey; Cane Sugar.
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.
Next steps from the Ascorbic Acid page
28,168 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Ascorbic Acid are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Review the sampled product records that list Ascorbic Acid to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. See listed products
- Place Ascorbic Acid next to “Whey” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Browse ingredient records
- Check the methodology for how FDA SAFFA, CSPI, and Open Food Facts rows are joined on this site. See source joins
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Ascorbic Acid carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. Ascorbic Acid itself carries and FDA SAFFA status "GRAS" where the source record supplies them. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.
Which product shelves show up most often with Ascorbic Acid? ▼
Ascorbic Acid ranks in the top decile by product count (#28 of 247,206), appearing in 28,168 indexed products led by Plant-based foods and beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What does Ascorbic Acid do in food? ▼
Ascorbic Acid is recorded as a antimicrobial agent, antioxidant, color or coloring adjunct, dough strengthener, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, nutrient supplement, ph control agent, sequestrant, stabilizer or thickener in source technical-effect fields.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Ascorbic Acid). 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.