Caramel Color Added
Caramel Color Added 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
Caramel Color Added 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
- 29
- named brands represented
- 58%
- 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
81.5% 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 Added as the trigger. Open records such as Argentina, Corned Beef; Beef Ravioli In Tomato & Meat Sauce; Beef Ravioli In Tomato & Meat Sauce and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 88.2/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 58% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
81.5% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 91 of 91 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 Added - usage rank #3,310
- 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
- 58%
- Averaged label depth puts Caramel Color Added in the lower half of the list (58% of list length, mean slot 22.3). 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 Caramel Color Added
Across the 92 products on this site that list Caramel Color Added, 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 12.4x more often with Caramel Color Added than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Caramel Color Added products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 65 | 70.7% | 5.7% |
| BHA | 16 | 17.4% | 0.7% |
| BHT | 14 | 15.2% | 1.1% |
| Sodium Nitrite | 10 | 10.9% | 2.4% |
| Carrageenan | 8 | 8.7% | 4.5% |
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 Added
Products Containing Caramel Color Added
High-volume slice (16 of 92) for products naming Caramel Color Added:
High-volume peers for Caramel Color Added beside “100% Whole Grain Wheat Flour”
High-volume peers for Caramel Color Added: 92 products, mean screening score 88.2/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: 100% Whole Grain Wheat Flour; Added To Maintain Color; With Alkali. Axes below stay distinct so count-neighbors do not duplicate score-neighbors.
Similar product count
Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).
Similar mean product score
Score-axis peers only, mean screening score among ingredients with ≥50 scored products, not a second count list.
What to do with this Caramel Color Added record
92 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Caramel Color Added are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Check the listed products containing Caramel Color Added before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Browse linked labels
- Place Caramel Color Added next to “Added To Maintain Color” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. 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 Caramel Color Added
How should I read safety signals when Caramel Color Added sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
81.5% 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 Added 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 Added? ▼
Caramel Color Added ranks in the top decile by product count (#3,310 of 247,206), appearing in 92 indexed products led by Meals. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Caramel Color Added so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Caramel Color Added appears in 92 products (#3,310 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Caramel Color Added). 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.