C Red #40
C Red #40 appears in 92 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
C Red #40 appears in 92 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.
- 92
- catalogued products
- #3,310
- usage rank of 247,206
- 43
- named brands represented
- 77%
- 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.
Reading this ingredient record
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 43 of 92 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare 12 Flavor Gummi Bears; albanese chocolate covered gummy bears; Assorted swirled ice squeeze-up tubes frozen dessert, cotton candy, orange dream, cherry melon to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 55–100 score range to C Red #40 itself. The ingredient most often sits near the end of the captured list, and Snacks supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
43 of 92 linked records have some flagged component
All 92 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 55–100 score spread more informative than the average alone: investigate the low end, identify the actual flagged row, and compare it with a similar unflagged formulation before drawing a conclusion.
Next check: pair one flagged product with a similar unflagged product from the same shelf category.
C Red #40 sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#3,310 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #3,310
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 41 others that also appear in exactly 92 products, listed in more products than 98.7% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 77%
- Averaged label depth puts C Red #40 near the end of the captured list (77% of list length, mean slot 16.2). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.
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.
What else is usually in the same product as C Red #40
Across the 92 products on this site that list C Red #40, 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. Sucralose shows up about 8x more often with C Red #40 than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of C Red #40 products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sucralose | 20 | 21.7% | 2.7% |
| Acesulfame Potassium | 13 | 14.1% | 1.8% |
| Titanium Dioxide | 10 | 10.9% | 2.1% |
| Caramel Coloring | 9 | 9.8% | 5.7% |
| Polysorbate 60 | 5 | 5.4% | 1.4% |
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 C Red #40
Products Containing C Red #40
A sample of 16 high-volume listings among the 92 indexed products containing C Red #40:
High-volume peers for C Red #40 beside “100% Whole Grain Wheat Flour”
C Red #40 sits among other busy catalog rows (92 products, mean score 91.6/100). Nearest count peers include “100% Whole Grain Wheat Flour”, “Added To Maintain Color”, “With Alkali”. 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
Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.
Next steps from the C Red #40 page
92 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on C Red #40 are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Check the listed products containing C Red #40 before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Browse linked labels
- Compare C Red #40 with a peer such as “100% Whole Grain Wheat Flour” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Open a peer record
- Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. See source joins
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Questions readers ask about C Red #40
Does C Red #40 carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. This snapshot does not attach a standalone FDA/CSPI verdict to C Red #40. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.
Which product shelves show up most often with C Red #40? ▼
C Red #40 ranks in the top decile by product count (#3,310 of 247,206), appearing in 92 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is C Red #40 so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet C Red #40 appears in 92 products (#3,310 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (C Red #40). 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.