Cheddar

Cheddar appears in 342 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

Cheddar appears in 342 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.

342
catalogued products
#1,347
usage rank of 247,206
146
named brands represented
36%
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: 83 of 342 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare 4 CHEESE BLEND; 5 Cheese Pizza, 5 Cheese; Acme Fresh Market, Pop Corn, Cheese to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to Cheddar itself. The ingredient most often sits in the upper half of the list, and Meals supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.

83 of 342 linked records have some flagged component

All 335 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.

Cheddar sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#1,347 / 247,206)

Usage rank
#1,347
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.5% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
36%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 342 products listing it (mean slot 14.2). Cheddar 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.

Derived by this site from the ingredient lists of every catalogued product (Open Food Facts), recomputed on each data refresh. 247,206 ingredients have at least one appearance and are ranked here. Usage and list position describe prevalence, not safety.

What else is usually in the same product as Cheddar

Across the 342 products on this site that list Cheddar, 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. Yellow 6 shows up about 3.4x more often with Cheddar than in the catalogue at large.

Yellow 6: +8ppYellow 6+8ppYellow 5: +6ppYellow 5+6ppSodium Nitrite: +2ppSodium Nitrite+2ppCarrageenan: -0.1ppCarrageenan-0.1ppCaramel Coloring: -1.6ppCaramel Coloring-1.6pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Cheddar products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

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

Yellow 6
8pp
Yellow 5
6pp
Sodium Nitrite
2pp
Carrageenan
-0.1pp
Caramel Coloring
-1.6pp
Additive Shared products Share of Cheddar products Share of all products
Yellow 6 39 11.4% 3.4%
Yellow 5 37 10.8% 4.8%
Sodium Nitrite 15 4.4% 2.4%
Carrageenan 15 4.4% 4.5%
Caramel Coloring 14 4.1% 5.7%

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 Cheddar

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 20406080100120 01234 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Cheddar
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.

High-volume peers for Cheddar beside “Red Chili”

High-volume peers for Cheddar: 342 products, mean screening score 90.7/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Red Chili; Green Olives; Lima Beans. 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

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

What to do with this Cheddar record

342 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Cheddar are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.

  • Review the sampled product records that list Cheddar to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. See listed products
  • Compare Cheddar with a peer such as “Red Chili” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Compare a peer
  • 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 Cheddar

Does Cheddar 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 Cheddar. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.

Which product shelves show up most often with Cheddar?

Cheddar ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,347 of 247,206), appearing in 342 indexed products led by Meals. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

Why is Cheddar so common on ingredient lists?

The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Cheddar appears in 342 products (#1,347 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Cheddar). 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.