Dextrin

Dextrin carries a source-backed screening score of 5/5 and appears in 3,472 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Safe.”

Source-backed answer

Dextrin appears in 3,472 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Safe.” 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.

3,472
catalogued products
#276
usage rank of 247,206
707
named brands represented
57%
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.

Dextrin: top-decile catalog footprint (#276 of 247,206)

Usage rank
#276
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.9% of them.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
57%
Averaged label depth puts Dextrin in the lower half of the list (57% of list length, mean slot 19.6). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.

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 this page can and cannot answer

Audit the co-occurring flags first

68.5% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Dextrin as the trigger. Open records such as 100% fruit juice smoothie boosts; 100% juice smoothie, strawberry banana, strawberry banana; 12 Big Smile Glazed Donuts and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 51.5/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 57% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

68.5% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 3472 of 3472 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 Dextrin

Across the 3,472 products on this site that list Dextrin, 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 5 shows up about 9.7x more often with Dextrin than in the catalogue at large.

Yellow 5: +41.7ppYellow 5+41.7ppRed 40: +40ppRed 40+40ppBlue 1: +40ppBlue 1+40ppYellow 6: +36.1ppYellow 6+36.1ppBlue 2: +27.2ppBlue 2+27.2pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Dextrin 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 5
41.7pp
Red 40
40pp
Blue 1
40pp
Yellow 6
36.1pp
Blue 2
27.2pp
Additive Shared products Share of Dextrin products Share of all products
Yellow 5 1,613 46.5% 4.8%
Red 40 1,578 45.4% 5.4%
Blue 1 1,535 44.2% 4.2%
Yellow 6 1,373 39.5% 3.4%
Blue 2 976 28.1% 0.9%

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

ANTICAKING AGENT OR FREE-FLOW AGENT, DRYING AGENT, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, FORMULATION AID, HUMECTANT, LUBRICANT OR RELEASE AGENT, NUTRITIVE SWEETENER, SOLVENT OR VEHICLE, STABILIZER OR THICKENER

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 Dextrin

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 0246810 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Dextrin
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.

Dextrin vs other top-decile catalog footprints

Top-decile company for Dextrin: 3,472 listings averaging 51.5/100. Comparable product-count neighbours: Tomato Juice · Chicken Broth · Red Pepper.

Similar product count

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

Similar mean product score

Score-axis peers only, mean screening score among ingredients with ≥50 scored products, not a second count list.

Next steps from the Dextrin page

3,472 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Dextrin are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.

  • Review the sampled product records that list Dextrin to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Browse linked labels
  • Place Dextrin next to “Chicken Broth” (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. See source joins

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How should I read safety signals when Dextrin sits in heavily flagged products?

68.5% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Dextrin is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Dextrin scores 5/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Safe" with FDA SAFFA status "GRAS". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.

Which product shelves show up most often with Dextrin?

Dextrin ranks in the top decile by product count (#276 of 247,206), appearing in 3,472 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

What function does Dextrin serve when it appears beside other flagged additives?

Dextrin is recorded as a anticaking agent or free-flow agent, drying agent, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, formulation aid, humectant, lubricant or release agent, nutritive sweetener, solvent or vehicle, stabilizer or thickener in source technical-effect fields. In high co-flag products, that function coexists with other caution-marked components — inspect the full list rather than isolating this role.

Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Dextrin). 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.