Caramel Coloring
PlainFoodSafe flags Caramel Coloring as a controversial additive. CSPI Chemical Cuisine rates it “Avoid.” It appears in 23,161 indexed US food products.
Source-backed answer
Caramel Coloring appears in 23,161 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Avoid.” Its FDA SAFFA status is “Approved (color additive, GRAS).” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 23,161
- catalogued products
- #43
- usage rank of 247,206
- 3,556
- named brands represented
- 67%
- 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.
Caramel Coloring sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#43 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #43
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 67%
- Averaged label depth puts Caramel Coloring in the lower half of the list (67% of list length, mean slot 18.5). 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 common is Caramel Coloring vs other flagged additives?
Number of indexed products containing each of the most common flagged additives - Caramel Coloring highlighted.
How to use this page
Audit the co-occurring flags first
100% 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 Coloring as the trigger. Open records such as 1/2 Marble Grad Cake With Red Borders; 10 mg THC Cannabis Infused Soda, Classic Root Beer; 100% Real Ice Cream and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 84.4/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 67% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
100% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 23155 of 23158 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 Caramel Coloring
Across the 23,161 products on this site that list Caramel Coloring, 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. Carrageenan shows up about 2x more often with Caramel Coloring than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Caramel Coloring products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrageenan | 2,095 | 9% | 4.5% |
| Red 40 | 1,966 | 8.5% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 1,266 | 5.5% | 4.8% |
| Yellow 6 | 1,198 | 5.2% | 3.4% |
| Sucralose | 1,085 | 4.7% | 2.7% |
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.
Function
Coloring
Safety Concerns
Controversial additive
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 Coloring
Products Containing Caramel Coloring
High-volume slice (16 of 23,161) for products naming Caramel Coloring:
Caramel Coloring vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Top-decile company for Caramel Coloring: 23,161 listings averaging 84.4/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Baking Soda · Onion Powder · Sunflower Oil.
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.
Using the Caramel Coloring evidence
23,161 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Caramel Coloring are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Review the sampled product records that list Caramel Coloring to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Browse linked labels
- Compare Caramel Coloring with a peer such as “Baking Soda” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Open a peer record
- See the join rules behind screening scores before reading them as dietary advice. 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 Coloring
How should I read safety signals when Caramel Coloring sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
100% 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 Coloring is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Caramel Coloring scores 1/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Avoid" with FDA SAFFA status "Approved (color additive, GRAS)". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Caramel Coloring? ▼
Caramel Coloring ranks in the top decile by product count (#43 of 247,206), appearing in 23,161 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Caramel Coloring serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Caramel Coloring is recorded as a coloring 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 (Caramel Coloring). 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.