Casein
Casein carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 580 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Certain People Should Avoid.”
Source-backed answer
Casein appears in 580 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Certain People Should Avoid.” Its FDA SAFFA status is “GRAS.” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 580
- catalogued products
- #955
- usage rank of 247,206
- 174
- named brands represented
- 37%
- 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.
Casein sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#955 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #955
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 2 others that also appear in exactly 580 products, listed in more products than 99.6% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 37%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 580 products listing it (mean slot 16.8). Casein usually falls in the upper half of the list; this position does not measure its amount because source formatting, compound ingredients and labeling exceptions vary.
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.
How to use this page
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 260 of 580 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare 123 Gluten Free: Sweet Goodness Sugat 'n spice Pam Pars baking mix; 4 Cheese Ravioli; 4 Meat TombStone Pizza to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 20–100 score range to Casein itself. The ingredient most often sits in the upper half of the list, and Snacks supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
260 of 580 linked records have some flagged component
All 580 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 20–100 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.
What else is usually in the same product as Casein
Across the 580 products on this site that list Casein, 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 4.9x more often with Casein than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Casein products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrageenan | 129 | 22.2% | 4.5% |
| Sodium Nitrite | 61 | 10.5% | 2.4% |
| Caramel Coloring | 59 | 10.2% | 5.7% |
| BHT | 57 | 9.8% | 1.1% |
| BHA | 53 | 9.1% | 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.
Function
EMULSIFIER OR EMULSIFIER SALT, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, FORMULATION AID, NUTRIENT SUPPLEMENT, PROCESSING AID, STABILIZER OR THICKENER, SURFACE-FINISHING AGENT, TEXTURIZER
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 Casein
Products Containing Casein
A sample of 16 high-volume listings among the 580 indexed products containing Casein:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Organic Sorghum Flour”)
Top-decile company for Casein: 580 listings averaging 90.2/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Organic Sorghum Flour; Sunflower Kernels; Lactase Enzyme.
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.
Using the Casein evidence
Use the 580-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 Casein to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Open product sample
- Place Casein next to “Sunflower Kernels” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Browse ingredient records
- Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Casein — common follow-ups
Does Casein carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. Casein itself carries a CSPI "Certain People Should Avoid" rating and FDA SAFFA status "GRAS" where the source record supplies them. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.
Which product shelves show up most often with Casein? ▼
Casein ranks in the top decile by product count (#955 of 247,206), appearing in 580 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What does Casein do in food? ▼
Casein is recorded as a emulsifier or emulsifier salt, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, formulation aid, nutrient supplement, processing aid, stabilizer or thickener, surface-finishing agent, texturizer in source technical-effect fields.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Casein). 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.