Carmel Color

Carmel Color appears in 116 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

Carmel Color appears in 116 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.

116
catalogued products
#2,834
usage rank of 247,206
64
named brands represented
70%
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

Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood

This is a mixed product neighborhood: 42 of 116 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare Authentic Rice Pudding; Barbecue Sauce; Bbq brisket marinade sauce to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to Carmel Color itself. The ingredient most often sits in the lower half of the list, and Condiments supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.

42 of 116 linked records have some flagged component

All 110 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 0–100 score spread more informative than the average alone: investigate the low end, identify the actual flagged row, and compare it with a similar unflagged formulation before drawing a conclusion.

Next check: pair one flagged product with a similar unflagged product from the same shelf category.

High-volume listing for Carmel Color - usage rank #2,834

Usage rank
#2,834
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 10 others that also appear in exactly 116 products, listed in more products than 98.9% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
70%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 116 products listing it (mean slot 21.3). Carmel Color 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.

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 Carmel Color

Across the 116 products on this site that list Carmel 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: +2.1ppCaramel Coloring+2.1ppPolysorbate 80: +4.7ppPolysorbate 80+4.7ppSodium Nitrite: +3.6ppSodium Nitrite+3.6ppRed 40: +0.6ppRed 40+0.6ppYellow 5: +0.4ppYellow 5+0.4pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Carmel Color products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

Unit: percentage points above/below baseline. Data current as of September 2026.

Caramel Coloring
2.1pp
Polysorbate 80
4.7pp
Sodium Nitrite
3.6pp
Red 40
0.6pp
Yellow 5
0.4pp
Additive Shared products Share of Carmel Color products Share of all products
Caramel Coloring 9 7.8% 5.7%
Polysorbate 80 7 6% 1.3%
Sodium Nitrite 7 6% 2.4%
Red 40 7 6% 5.4%
Yellow 5 6 5.2% 4.8%

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 Carmel Color

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 16 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 Carmel Color
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.

Carmel Color vs other top-decile catalog footprints

Carmel Color sits among other busy catalog rows (116 products, mean score 90.6/100). Nearest count peers include “Black Cherries”, “Crab Flavor”, “D-glucuronolactone”. Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.

Similar product count

Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).

Similar mean product score

Mean product-score neighbours (≥50 scored products), kept separate from the product-count peers above.

What to do with this Carmel Color record

Use the 116-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.

  • Review the sampled product records that list Carmel Color to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Open product sample
  • Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Compare a peer
  • 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Carmel Color carry its own safety label in this catalog?

This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. This snapshot does not attach a standalone FDA/CSPI verdict to Carmel Color. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.

Which product shelves show up most often with Carmel Color?

Carmel Color ranks in the top decile by product count (#2,834 of 247,206), appearing in 116 indexed products led by Condiments. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

Why is Carmel Color so common on ingredient lists?

The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Carmel Color appears in 116 products (#2,834 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Carmel 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.