Brown
Brown appears in 56 indexed US food products. No FDA SAFFA status or CSPI rating is attached in this snapshot, so this page reports prevalence rather than a safety verdict.
What the data can answer
Brown appears in 56 catalogued products, but this snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to it. This page therefore cannot answer whether the ingredient is safe from those sources. It can show how often it occurs, where it tends to sit on labels, and which kinds of products contain it.
- 56
- catalogued products
- #4,615
- usage rank of 247,206
- 41
- named brands represented
- 42%
- 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.
Brown: top-decile catalog footprint (#4,615 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #4,615
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 54 others that also appear in exactly 56 products.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 42%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 56 products listing it (mean slot 9.4). Brown usually falls in the upper 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.
What this page can and cannot answer
Use prevalence before concern
Only 17.9% of linked products carry any separately flagged ingredient. The stronger differentiator here is market placement: Brown spans 41 named brands and is led by the Snacks group. Start with Angela Marie's, Marshmallow Munchie, Gluten Free Crispy Marshmallow Squares, Original; Aunt abby's confections, gluten free vegan cookie, carob chip; Bagels when comparing real formulations. Because the flagged component may be something else, neither the low co-occurrence rate nor the 97.1/100 product average proves this ingredient safe.
41 named brands carry this ingredient
The processing evidence is heterogeneous rather than a single shelf pattern: the largest NOVA group contains 43 of 51 classified products, leaving a meaningful remainder elsewhere. This breadth is why the page reports label depth, category, and product examples separately. Those dimensions help locate comparable products; combining them into a stronger safety claim would hide the variation the catalog actually contains.
Next check: compare label position across two brands before treating prevalence as equivalent exposure.
What else is usually in the same product as Brown
Across the 56 products on this site that list Brown, 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 1.6x more often with Brown than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Brown products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 5 | 8.9% | 5.7% |
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.
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 Brown
Products Containing Brown
16 busy labels from the 56 indexed products that list Brown:
High-volume peers for Brown beside “Almond Base”
Top-decile company for Brown: 56 listings averaging 97.1/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Almond Base; Apples With Calcium Ascorbate To Promote Whiteness And Maintain Texture; Beta-carotene For Color.
Similar product count
Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).
Similar mean product score
Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.
What to do with this Brown record
Use the 56-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Check the listed products containing Brown before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. See listed products
- Place Brown next to “Apples With Calcium Ascorbate To Promote Whiteness And Maintain Texture” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Browse ingredient records
- 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
Why is there no FDA/CSPI verdict on Brown? ▼
This snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to Brown, so PlainFoodSafe does not present a source-backed safety verdict. The page reports catalog prevalence (#4,615 of 247,206 ingredients) and label position instead.
Which product shelves show up most often with Brown? ▼
Brown ranks in the top decile by product count (#4,615 of 247,206), appearing in 56 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Brown so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Brown appears in 56 products (#4,615 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Brown). 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.