Cara

Cara appears in 6 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

Cara appears in 6 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.

6
catalogued products
#21,732
usage rank of 247,206
6
named brands represented
102%
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.

How to use this page

Audit the co-occurring flags first

50% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Cara as the trigger. Open records such as Classic Assorted Nuts & Caramel; Flavored Mix, Party Mix; Haioreum, Korean Style Beef Bbq Sauce and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 92.5/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 102% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

50% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 6 of 6 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.

Cara sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#21,732 / 247,206)

Usage rank
#21,732
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 2,975 others that also appear in exactly 6 products.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
102%
Averaged label depth puts Cara near the end of the captured list (102% of list length, mean slot 17.0). 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.

How do the sampled products compare?

Each point is one of the 6 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 Cara

Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine. 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 6 entities by Safety score (X) and Flagged ingredients on label (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. High score, still flaggedLow score, more flaggedHigh score, fewer flaggedLow score, fewer flagged 7580859095100105 00.511.522.5 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Cara Classic Assorted Nuts & CaramelFlavored Mix, Party MixHaioreum, Korean Style Beef Bbq SauceHomestyle GravyNonfat YogurtNonfat Yogurt
Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine.

Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass

Top-decile company for Cara: 6 listings averaging 92.5/100.

Similar mean product score

Score-axis peers only, mean screening score among ingredients with ≥50 scored products, not a second count list.

Using the Cara evidence

Use the 6-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.

This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.

Questions readers ask about Cara

How should I read safety signals when Cara sits in heavily flagged products?

50% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Cara is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.

Which product shelves show up most often with Cara?

Cara ranks in the top decile by product count (#21,732 of 247,206), appearing in 6 indexed products led by Undefined. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

Why is Cara so common on ingredient lists?

The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Cara appears in 6 products (#21,732 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Cara). 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.