BHA
PlainFoodSafe flags BHA as a preservative concern. CSPI Chemical Cuisine rates it “Avoid.” It appears in 2,913 indexed US food products.
Source-backed answer
BHA appears in 2,913 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Avoid.” 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.
- 2,913
- catalogued products
- #313
- usage rank of 248,027
- 585
- 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.
2/5 from FDA SAFFA + CSPI Chemical Cuisine
Where BHA sits among catalogued ingredients
- Usage rank
- #313
- of 248,027 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.9% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 75%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 2,915 products listing it (mean slot 26.8). BHA 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 common is BHA vs other flagged additives?
Number of indexed products containing each of the most common flagged additives - BHA 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 BHA as the trigger. Open records such as 1 slice hard salami 2 slices mild cheddar cheese; 1/2 Cheese Pizza & 1/2 Pepperoni Pizza; 10” Chocolate Cake Filled with Chocolate Mousse and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 56.7/100 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 2819 of 2894 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 BHA
Across the 2,913 products on this site that list BHA, 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. BHT shows up about 62x more often with BHA than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of BHA products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| BHT | 1,986 | 68.2% | 1.1% |
| Sodium Nitrite | 1,468 | 50.4% | 2.4% |
| Propyl Gallate | 525 | 18% | 0.2% |
| Caramel Coloring | 430 | 14.8% | 5.7% |
| Yellow 5 | 159 | 5.5% | 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, 2026-08-02.
Safety Concerns
Preservative concern
Safety Profile at a Glance
| Source | Classification | Year |
|---|---|---|
| FDA SAFFA | GRAS | 2024 |
| CSPI Chemical Cuisine | Avoid | 2024 |
| PlainFoodSafe Score | 2/5 | 2026 |
| Product footprint | 2,913 products | OpenFoodFacts |
FDA SAFFA database, CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings, OpenFoodFacts product index. See methodology.
Products Containing BHA
A sample of 16 of the 2,913 indexed products containing BHA, with each product's overall safety score.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is BHA safe to eat? ▼
BHA has a PlainFoodSafe ingredient-screening score of 2/5. CSPI rates it "Avoid." FDA SAFFA status: GRAS. These labels are not a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific safety determination.
What products contain BHA? ▼
BHA is found in 2,913 products in our database, spanning various food categories and brands.
What does BHA do in food? ▼
The current source record does not specify a technical effect for BHA. Its product footprint is shown here without guessing why manufacturers use it.
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.
