Azodicarbonamide
PlainFoodSafe flags Azodicarbonamide as a controversial additive. CSPI Chemical Cuisine rates it “Avoid.” It appears in 713 indexed US food products.
Source-backed answer
Azodicarbonamide appears in 713 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.
- 713
- catalogued products
- #833
- usage rank of 247,206
- 219
- named brands represented
- 70%
- 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.
Azodicarbonamide sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#833 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #833
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.7% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 70%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 713 products listing it (mean slot 28.5). Azodicarbonamide 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 Azodicarbonamide vs other flagged additives?
Number of indexed products containing each of the most common flagged additives - Azodicarbonamide highlighted.
What this page can and cannot answer
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 Azodicarbonamide as the trigger. Open records such as 100% Whole Wheat 8 Hamburger Buns; 100% Whole Wheat Bagels; 100% whole wheat hamburger buns and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 76.2/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 70% 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 702 of 713 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 Azodicarbonamide
Across the 713 products on this site that list Azodicarbonamide, 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. Caramel Coloring shows up about 2.9x more often with Azodicarbonamide than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Azodicarbonamide products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 120 | 16.8% | 5.7% |
| Sodium Nitrite | 65 | 9.1% | 2.4% |
| Potassium Iodate | 58 | 8.1% | 0.2% |
| Polysorbate 60 | 44 | 6.2% | 1.4% |
| TBHQ | 42 | 5.9% | 0.5% |
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
DOUGH STRENGTHENER, FLOUR TREATING AGENT
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 Azodicarbonamide
Products Containing Azodicarbonamide
High-volume slice (16 of 713) for products naming Azodicarbonamide:
High-volume peers for Azodicarbonamide beside “Condensed Milk”
Azodicarbonamide sits among other busy catalog rows (713 products, mean score 76.2/100). Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Condensed Milk; Organic Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips; Vegetable Broth. Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.
Similar product count
Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).
Similar mean product score
Score-axis peers only, mean screening score among ingredients with ≥50 scored products, not a second count list.
Using the Azodicarbonamide evidence
713 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Azodicarbonamide are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Review the sampled product records that list Azodicarbonamide to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Browse linked labels
- Place Azodicarbonamide next to “Organic Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Open a peer record
- 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.
Azodicarbonamide — common follow-ups
How should I read safety signals when Azodicarbonamide 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 Azodicarbonamide is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Azodicarbonamide 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 Azodicarbonamide? ▼
Azodicarbonamide ranks in the top decile by product count (#833 of 247,206), appearing in 713 indexed products led by Plant-based foods and beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Azodicarbonamide serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Azodicarbonamide is recorded as a dough strengthener, flour treating agent 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 (Azodicarbonamide). 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.