Corn Syrup

Corn Syrup carries a source-backed screening score of 4/5 and appears in 46,998 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Cut Back.”

Source-backed answer

Corn Syrup appears in 46,998 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Cut Back.” 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.

46,998
catalogued products
#11
usage rank of 248,027
5,076
named brands represented
32%
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.

Safety score 80.0%

4/5 from FDA SAFFA + CSPI Chemical Cuisine

Where Corn Syrup sits among catalogued ingredients

Usage rank
#11
of 248,027 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
32%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 47,078 products listing it (mean slot 9.1). Corn Syrup 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. 248,027 ingredients have at least one appearance and are ranked here. Usage and list position describe prevalence, not safety.

How to use this page

Audit the co-occurring flags first

60% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Corn Syrup as the trigger. Open records such as 1 lb. Hot dog; 1 Wow!, Lollipop Bouquet; 1% chocolate lowfat milk and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 75.4/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 32% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 45282 of 46757 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 Corn Syrup

Across the 46,998 products on this site that list Corn Syrup, 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. Red 40 shows up about 4.4x more often with Corn Syrup than in the catalogue at large.

Additive Shared products Share of Corn Syrup products Share of all products
Red 40 11,199 23.8% 5.4%
Blue 1 9,169 19.5% 4.2%
Yellow 5 9,048 19.3% 4.8%
Carrageenan 6,820 14.5% 4.5%
Caramel Coloring 6,508 13.8% 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, 2026-08-02.

CSPI Rating
Cut Back
FDA Status
GRAS
Safety Score
4/5

Function

ANTICAKING AGENT OR FREE-FLOW AGENT, DRYING AGENT, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, HUMECTANT, LEAVENING AGENT, NUTRIENT SUPPLEMENT, NUTRITIVE SWEETENER, SOLVENT OR VEHICLE, TEXTURIZER

Safety Profile at a Glance

Regulatory and safety classifications for Corn Syrup
Source Classification Year
FDA SAFFA GRAS 2024
CSPI Chemical Cuisine Cut Back 2024
PlainFoodSafe Score 4/5 2026
Product footprint 46,998 products OpenFoodFacts

FDA SAFFA database, CSPI Chemical Cuisine ratings, OpenFoodFacts product index. See methodology.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Corn Syrup safe to eat?

Corn Syrup has a PlainFoodSafe ingredient-screening score of 4/5. CSPI rates it "Cut Back." FDA SAFFA status: GRAS. These labels are not a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific safety determination.

What products contain Corn Syrup?

Corn Syrup is found in 46,998 products in our database, spanning various food categories and brands.

What does Corn Syrup do in food?

Corn Syrup is used as a anticaking agent or free-flow agent, drying agent, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, humectant, leavening agent, nutrient supplement, nutritive sweetener, solvent or vehicle, texturizer in food products.

Citation notes Regulatory status from FDA SAFFA; safety ratings from CSPI Chemical Cuisine; product presence from Open Food Facts. See our methodology. Retrieved and formatted by PlainFoodSafe.

Every figure on PlainFoodSafe is rendered directly from OpenFoodFacts and FDA data, no number is typed in by an editor. Ingredient figures are computed directly from OpenFoodFacts, FDA SAFFA, and CSPI Chemical Cuisine data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.

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