Culture

Culture appears in 1,710 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

Culture appears in 1,710 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.

1,710
catalogued products
#458
usage rank of 247,206
436
named brands represented
50%
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.

What this page can and cannot answer

Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood

This is a mixed product neighborhood: 493 of 1710 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare 3 Cheese & Kale Bake; 3 Cheese Blend; 3 Cheese Blend to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to Culture itself. The ingredient most often sits in the upper half of the list, and Dairies supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.

493 of 1,710 linked records have some flagged component

All 1676 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 Culture - usage rank #458

Usage rank
#458
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.8% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
50%
Mean relative depth 50% across 1,711 parsed labels, slot 15.8 on average. Culture tends to sit in the upper half of the list. Depth is location on the label, not a measured dose.

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 Culture

Across the 1,710 products on this site that list Culture, 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 3.3x more often with Culture than in the catalogue at large.

Carrageenan: +10.2ppCarrageenan+10.2ppSodium Nitrite: +4.3ppSodium Nitrite+4.3ppCaramel Coloring: +0.8ppCaramel Coloring+0.8ppBHT: +1.8ppBHT+1.8ppYellow 5: -2.1ppYellow 5-2.1pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Culture products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

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

Carrageenan
10.2pp
Sodium Nitrite
4.3pp
Caramel Coloring
0.8pp
BHT
1.8pp
Yellow 5
-2.1pp
Additive Shared products Share of Culture products Share of all products
Carrageenan 251 14.7% 4.5%
Sodium Nitrite 115 6.7% 2.4%
Caramel Coloring 111 6.5% 5.7%
BHT 50 2.9% 1.1%
Yellow 5 46 2.7% 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 Culture

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 406080100120 01234 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Culture
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.

Culture vs other top-decile catalog footprints

Top-decile company for Culture: 1,710 listings averaging 94.4/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Oleoresin Paprika · Black Beans · Stevia Extract.

Similar product count

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

Similar mean product score

Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.

Using the Culture evidence

Use the 1,710-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.

  • Open the product sample for Culture and read how the term sits on real packages. Browse linked labels
  • Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Browse ingredient records
  • Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. See source joins

This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Which product shelves show up most often with Culture?

Culture ranks in the top decile by product count (#458 of 247,206), appearing in 1,710 indexed products led by Dairies. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

Why is Culture so common on ingredient lists?

The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Culture appears in 1,710 products (#458 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Culture). 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.