Dextrose
Dextrose carries a source-backed screening score of 4/5 and appears in 41,251 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Cut Back.”
Source-backed answer
Dextrose appears in 41,251 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.
- 41,251
- catalogued products
- #18
- usage rank of 247,206
- 5,259
- named brands represented
- 49%
- 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.
Dextrose sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#18 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #18
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 49%
- Averaged label depth puts Dextrose in the upper half of the list (49% of list length, mean slot 15.1). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.
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.
Reading this ingredient record
Audit the co-occurring flags first
53.1% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Dextrose as the trigger. Open records such as 1 donut; 1 lb. Hot dog; 1/2 Cheese Pizza & 1/2 Pepperoni Pizza and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 81.9/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 49% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
53.1% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 41205 of 41209 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 Dextrose
Across the 41,251 products on this site that list Dextrose, 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. Caramel Coloring shows up about 2.5x more often with Dextrose than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Dextrose products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Coloring | 5,951 | 14.4% | 5.7% |
| Sodium Nitrite | 5,438 | 13.2% | 2.4% |
| Red 40 | 5,000 | 12.1% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 4,837 | 11.7% | 4.8% |
| Blue 1 | 3,984 | 9.7% | 4.2% |
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, COLOR OR COLORING ADJUNCT, DRYING AGENT, FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, 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 Dextrose
Products Containing Dextrose
A sample of 16 high-volume listings among the 41,251 indexed products containing Dextrose:
Dextrose vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Top-decile company for Dextrose: 41,251 listings averaging 81.9/100. Nearest count peers include “Garlic”, “Soybean Oil”, “Natural Flavors”.
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.
Next steps from the Dextrose page
Use the 41,251-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Review the sampled product records that list Dextrose to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. See listed products
- 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. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Dextrose — common follow-ups
How should I read safety signals when Dextrose sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
53.1% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Dextrose is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Dextrose scores 4/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Cut Back" 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 Dextrose? ▼
Dextrose ranks in the top decile by product count (#18 of 247,206), appearing in 41,251 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Dextrose serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Dextrose is recorded as a anticaking agent or free-flow agent, color or coloring adjunct, drying agent, flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, 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 (Dextrose). 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.