caramel color
caramel color appears in 41 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
caramel color appears in 41 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.
- 41
- catalogued products
- #5,697
- usage rank of 247,206
- 8
- named brands represented
- 52%
- 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
Audit the co-occurring flags first
80.5% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify caramel color as the trigger. Open records such as Blue bunny, chocolate caramel cashew; Boneless pork rib shaped patty with bbq sauce & mashed potatoes; Monster cookie ice cream, monster cookie and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 74.4/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 52% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
80.5% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 41 of 41 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.
High-volume listing for caramel color - usage rank #5,697
- Usage rank
- #5,697
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 99 others that also appear in exactly 41 products.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 52%
- Averaged label depth puts caramel color in the lower half of the list (52% of list length, mean slot 26.3). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.
Ranks use Open Food Facts ingredient rows on this site’s refresh cycle. 247,206 ingredients with ≥1 product appearance enter the ranking. Prevalence and list depth are catalog facts, not toxicology.
What else is usually in the same product as caramel color
Across the 41 products on this site that list caramel color, 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 8.6x more often with caramel color than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of caramel color products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 20 | 48.8% | 5.7% |
| Carrageenan | 18 | 43.9% | 4.5% |
| Sodium Nitrite | 11 | 26.8% | 2.4% |
| BHT | 11 | 26.8% | 1.1% |
| BHA | 10 | 24.4% | 0.7% |
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 caramel color
Products Containing caramel color
16 busy labels from the 41 indexed products that list caramel color:
High-volume peers for caramel color
caramel color sits among other busy catalog rows (41 products, mean score 74.4/100). Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.
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 caramel color record
Use the 41-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Check the listed products containing caramel color before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Browse linked labels
- Compare another ingredient’s source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Browse ingredient records
- Check the methodology for how FDA SAFFA, CSPI, and Open Food Facts rows are joined on this site. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Questions readers ask about caramel color
How should I read safety signals when caramel color sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
80.5% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming caramel color is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with caramel color? ▼
caramel color ranks in the top decile by product count (#5,697 of 247,206), appearing in 41 indexed products led by Meals. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is caramel color so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet caramel color appears in 41 products (#5,697 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (caramel color). 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.