Citral

Citral carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 22 indexed US food products.

Source-backed answer

Citral appears in 22 catalogued products. CSPI has no rating attached in this snapshot. 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.

22
catalogued products
#8,787
usage rank of 247,206
8
named brands represented
80%
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.

High-volume listing for Citral - usage rank #8,787

Usage rank
#8,787
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 249 others that also appear in exactly 22 products.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
80%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 22 products listing it (mean slot 23.5). Citral usually falls near the end of the captured 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.

How to use this page

Use prevalence before concern

Only 18.2% of linked products carry any separately flagged ingredient. The stronger differentiator here is market placement: Citral spans 8 named brands and is led by the Cologne group. Start with Acai Berry Spritz; Argan Oil Repairing Hair Oil; Epic Fresh Grapefruit & Tropical Pineapple Scent XXL when comparing real formulations. Because the flagged component may be something else, neither the low co-occurrence rate nor the 90.0/100 product average proves this ingredient safe.

8 named brands carry this ingredient

The processing evidence is heterogeneous rather than a single shelf pattern: the largest NOVA group contains 12 of 12 classified products, leaving a meaningful remainder elsewhere. This breadth is why the page reports label depth, category, and product examples separately. Those dimensions help locate comparable products; combining them into a stronger safety claim would hide the variation the catalog actually contains.

Next check: compare label position across two brands before treating prevalence as equivalent exposure.

Function

FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT

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 Citral

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 050100150 02468 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Citral
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.

Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass

Top-decile company for Citral: 22 listings averaging 90/100.

Similar mean product score

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

Using the Citral evidence

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

  • Check the listed products containing Citral before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. Open product sample
  • Browse another ingredient record and keep the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields in view. 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do the source ratings say about Citral?

Citral has a PlainFoodSafe ingredient-screening score of 3/5. FDA SAFFA status: GRAS. With only 18.2% co-flag overlap in linked products, prevalence and label position often matter as much as the registry labels — and none of them establish product-level safety.

Which product shelves show up most often with Citral?

Citral ranks in the top decile by product count (#8,787 of 247,206), appearing in 22 indexed products led by Cologne. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

What does Citral do in food?

Citral is recorded as a flavoring agent or adjuvant in source technical-effect fields.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Citral). 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.