Caffeine
Caffeine carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 3,254 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Certain People Should Avoid.”
Source-backed answer
Caffeine appears in 3,254 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Certain People Should 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.
- 3,254
- catalogued products
- #288
- usage rank of 247,206
- 616
- named brands represented
- 62%
- 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.
Caffeine: top-decile catalog footprint (#288 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #288
- 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
- 62%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 3,259 products listing it (mean slot 8.8). Caffeine 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. 247,206 ingredients have at least one appearance and are ranked here. Usage and list position describe prevalence, not safety.
Reading this ingredient record
Audit the co-occurring flags first
77.4% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Caffeine as the trigger. Open records such as 1 Liter Pepsi; 12 Fl Oz; 12 fl oz Soda Can and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 77.7/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 62% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
77.4% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 3217 of 3238 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 Caffeine
Across the 3,254 products on this site that list Caffeine, 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 6.1x more often with Caffeine than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Caffeine products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 1,122 | 34.5% | 5.7% |
| Sucralose | 1,044 | 32.1% | 2.7% |
| Acesulfame Potassium | 823 | 25.3% | 1.8% |
| Aspartame | 522 | 16% | 0.9% |
| Red 40 | 362 | 11.1% | 5.4% |
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.
Function
FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT
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 Caffeine
Products Containing Caffeine
A sample of 16 high-volume listings among the 3,254 indexed products containing Caffeine:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Cultured Pasteurized Milk”)
Top-decile company for Caffeine: 3,254 listings averaging 77.7/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Cultured Pasteurized Milk · Artificial Colors · Cumin.
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.
Using the Caffeine evidence
3,254 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Caffeine are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Check the listed products containing Caffeine before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Open product sample
- Place Caffeine next to “Artificial Colors” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Compare a peer
- Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Caffeine — common follow-ups
How should I read safety signals when Caffeine sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
77.4% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Caffeine is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Caffeine scores 3/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Certain People Should Avoid" with FDA SAFFA status "GRAS". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Caffeine? ▼
Caffeine ranks in the top decile by product count (#288 of 247,206), appearing in 3,254 indexed products led by Beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Caffeine serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Caffeine is recorded as a flavoring agent or adjuvant in source technical-effect fields. In high co-flag products, that function coexists with other caution-marked components — inspect the full list rather than isolating this role.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Caffeine). 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.