Diacetyl
Diacetyl carries a source-backed screening score of 2/5 and appears in 10 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Caution.”
Source-backed answer
Diacetyl appears in 10 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Caution.” 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.
- 10
- catalogued products
- #15,180
- usage rank of 247,206
- 5
- 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.
Diacetyl sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#15,180 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #15,180
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 1,209 others that also appear in exactly 10 products.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 57%
- Mean relative depth 57% across 10 parsed labels, slot 23.0 on average. Diacetyl tends to sit in the lower half of the list. Depth is location on the label, not a measured dose.
Ranks use Open Food Facts ingredient rows on this site’s refresh cycle. 247,206 ingredients with ≥1 product appearance enter the ranking. Prevalence and list depth are catalog facts, not toxicology.
How to use this page
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 4 of 10 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare Breaded raw stuffed boneless skinless chicken breasts with rib meat; Chicken Breast With Rib Meat; Crema Mexicana El Michoacana to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 60–100 score range to Diacetyl itself. The ingredient most often sits in the lower half of the list, and Frozen foods supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
4 of 10 linked records have some flagged component
All 10 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 60–100 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.
Function
FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT
How do the sampled products compare?
Each point is one of the 10 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 Diacetyl
Products Containing Diacetyl
A sample of 10 high-volume listings among the 10 indexed products containing Diacetyl:
High-volume peers for Diacetyl
Diacetyl sits among other busy catalog rows (10 products, mean score 89/100). Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.
Similar mean product score
Mean product-score neighbours (≥50 scored products), kept separate from the product-count peers above.
Using the Diacetyl evidence
10 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Diacetyl are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Check the listed products containing Diacetyl before treating the aggregate count as a personal conclusion. 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. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Diacetyl carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. Diacetyl itself carries a CSPI "Caution" rating and FDA SAFFA status "GRAS" where the source record supplies them. Compare like-for-like products before treating the average screening score as an ingredient verdict.
Which product shelves show up most often with Diacetyl? ▼
Diacetyl ranks in the top decile by product count (#15,180 of 247,206), appearing in 10 indexed products led by Frozen foods. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What does Diacetyl do in food? ▼
Diacetyl is recorded as a flavoring agent or adjuvant in source technical-effect fields.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Diacetyl). 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.