Aspartame
PlainFoodSafe flags Aspartame as a controversial additive. CSPI Chemical Cuisine rates it “Avoid.” It appears in 3,611 indexed US food products.
Source-backed answer
Aspartame appears in 3,611 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Avoid.” Its FDA SAFFA status is “Approved.” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 3,611
- catalogued products
- #268
- usage rank of 247,206
- 470
- named brands represented
- 51%
- 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.
Aspartame: top-decile catalog footprint (#268 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #268
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.9% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 51%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 3,611 products listing it (mean slot 7.2). Aspartame 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.
How common is Aspartame vs other flagged additives?
Number of indexed products containing each of the most common flagged additives - Aspartame highlighted.
How to use this page
Audit the co-occurring flags first
100% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Aspartame as the trigger. Open records such as 12 Fl Oz; 3 Hour Mint, Peppermint; 3 in 1 Milk Tea Powder and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 51.2/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 51% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
100% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 3611 of 3611 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 Aspartame
Across the 3,611 products on this site that list Aspartame, 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. Acesulfame Potassium shows up about 37.6x more often with Aspartame than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Aspartame products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acesulfame Potassium | 2,442 | 67.6% | 1.8% |
| Red 40 | 908 | 25.1% | 5.4% |
| Caramel Coloring | 765 | 21.2% | 5.7% |
| Blue 1 | 729 | 20.2% | 4.2% |
| Yellow 5 | 560 | 15.5% | 4.8% |
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
FLAVOR ENHANCER, NON-NUTRITIVE SWEETENER
Safety Concerns
Controversial additive
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 Aspartame
Products Containing Aspartame
High-volume slice (16 of 3,611) for products naming Aspartame:
High-volume peers for Aspartame beside “Peanut Butter”
High-volume peers for Aspartame: 3,611 products, mean screening score 51.2/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Peanut Butter; Milk Protein Concentrate; Chili Pepper. 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 Aspartame record
Use the 3,611-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Check the listed products containing Aspartame before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Browse linked labels
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Browse ingredient records
- See the join rules behind screening scores before reading them as dietary advice. See source joins
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 Aspartame sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
100% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Aspartame is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Aspartame scores 1/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Avoid" with FDA SAFFA status "Approved". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Aspartame? ▼
Aspartame ranks in the top decile by product count (#268 of 247,206), appearing in 3,611 indexed products led by Beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Aspartame serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Aspartame is recorded as a flavor enhancer, non-nutritive sweetener in source technical-effect fields. In high co-flag products, that function coexists with other caution-marked components — inspect the full list rather than isolating this role.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Aspartame). 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.