Blue 2
PlainFoodSafe flags Blue 2 as a synthetic dye. CSPI Chemical Cuisine rates it “Avoid.” It appears in 3,627 indexed US food products. A California (schools) restriction takes effect2027-12-31.
Source-backed answer
Blue 2 appears in 3,627 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Avoid.” Its FDA SAFFA status is “Approved (certified color).” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 3,627
- catalogued products
- #226
- usage rank of 247,206
- 566
- named brands represented
- 79%
- 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.
Blue 2 sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#226 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #226
- 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
- 79%
- Mean relative depth 79% across 4,630 parsed labels, slot 25.3 on average. Blue 2 tends to sit near the end of the captured list. Depth is location on the label, not a measured dose.
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.
How common is Blue 2 vs other flagged additives?
Number of indexed products containing each of the most common flagged additives - Blue 2 highlighted.
Reading this ingredient record
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 Blue 2 as the trigger. Open records such as 12 Plastic Eggs With Candy Inside; 6 CT WHITE & CHOCOLATE CUP WITH WHIPPED ICING; 7-eleven fresh to go, football iced sugar cookie and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 8.0/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 79% 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 3627 of 3627 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 Blue 2
Across the 3,627 products on this site that list Blue 2, 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 15.9x more often with Blue 2 than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Blue 2 products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red 40 | 3,122 | 86.1% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 2,860 | 78.9% | 4.8% |
| Yellow 6 | 2,798 | 77.1% | 3.4% |
| Blue 1 | 2,674 | 73.7% | 4.2% |
| Red 3 | 1,028 | 28.3% | 1.1% |
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.
Safety Concerns
Synthetic dye
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 Blue 2
Products Containing Blue 2
A sample of 16 high-volume listings among the 3,627 indexed products containing Blue 2:
Blue 2 vs other top-decile catalog footprints
High-volume peers for Blue 2: 3,627 products, mean screening score 8/100. Nearest count peers include “Peanut Butter”, “Aspartame”, “Milk Protein Concentrate”. 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 Blue 2 record
Use the 3,627-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Review the sampled product records that list Blue 2 to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Browse linked labels
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I read safety signals when Blue 2 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 Blue 2 is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Blue 2 scores 2/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Avoid" with FDA SAFFA status "Approved (certified color)". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Blue 2? ▼
Blue 2 ranks in the top decile by product count (#226 of 247,206), appearing in 3,627 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Blue 2 so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Blue 2 appears in 3,627 products (#226 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Blue 2). 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.