Benzyl Alcohol

Benzyl Alcohol carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 127 indexed US food products.

Source-backed answer

Benzyl Alcohol appears in 127 catalogued products. CSPI has no rating attached in this snapshot. 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.

127
catalogued products
#2,655
usage rank of 248,027
52
named brands represented
75%
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.

Safety score 60.0%

3/5 from FDA SAFFA + CSPI Chemical Cuisine

Where Benzyl Alcohol sits among catalogued ingredients

Usage rank
#2,655
of 248,027 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 20 others that also appear in exactly 127 products, listed in more products than 98.9% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
75%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 127 products listing it (mean slot 21.4). Benzyl Alcohol 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

58.3% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Benzyl Alcohol as the trigger. Open records such as 3in1 Kids Soap; 3in1 Soap; Autumn Air & Amber Moisturizing Lotion and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 74.8/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 75% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 119 of 120 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 Benzyl Alcohol

Across the 127 products on this site that list Benzyl Alcohol, 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. Red 40 shows up about 6.9x more often with Benzyl Alcohol than in the catalogue at large.

Additive Shared products Share of Benzyl Alcohol products Share of all products
Red 40 47 37% 5.4%
Caramel Coloring 27 21.3% 5.7%
Blue 1 21 16.5% 4.2%
Yellow 6 15 11.8% 3.4%
Aspartame 14 11% 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.

FDA Status
Approved
Safety Score
3/5

Function

FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, SOLVENT OR VEHICLE

Safety Profile at a Glance

Regulatory and safety classifications for Benzyl Alcohol
Source Classification Year
FDA SAFFA Approved 2024
CSPI Chemical Cuisine Not rated 2024
PlainFoodSafe Score 3/5 2026
Product footprint 127 products OpenFoodFacts

FDA SAFFA database, CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings, OpenFoodFacts product index. See methodology.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Benzyl Alcohol safe to eat?

Benzyl Alcohol has a PlainFoodSafe ingredient-screening score of 3/5. FDA SAFFA status: Approved. These labels are not a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific safety determination.

What products contain Benzyl Alcohol?

Benzyl Alcohol is found in 127 products in our database, spanning various food categories and brands.

What does Benzyl Alcohol do in food?

Benzyl Alcohol is used as a flavoring agent or adjuvant, solvent or vehicle 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.

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