EDTA
EDTA carries a source-backed screening score of 5/5 and appears in 273 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Safe.”
Source-backed answer
EDTA appears in 273 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Safe.” No FDA SAFFA status is attached. Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 273
- catalogued products
- #1,578
- usage rank of 247,206
- 113
- named brands represented
- 82%
- 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.
High-volume listing for EDTA - usage rank #1,578
- Usage rank
- #1,578
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 5 others that also appear in exactly 273 products, listed in more products than 99.4% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 82%
- Averaged label depth puts EDTA near the end of the captured list (82% of list length, mean slot 17.2). 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.
How to use this page
Separate this ingredient from its product neighborhood
This is a mixed product neighborhood: 122 of 273 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare 5-hour ENERGY Extra Strength Hawaiian Breeze; after+; Apple Soda to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 0–100 score range to EDTA itself. The ingredient most often sits near the end of the captured list, and Beverages supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
122 of 273 linked records have some flagged component
All 271 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.
What else is usually in the same product as EDTA
Across the 273 products on this site that list EDTA, 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. Sucralose shows up about 8.3x more often with EDTA than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of EDTA products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sucralose | 61 | 22.3% | 2.7% |
| Acesulfame Potassium | 43 | 15.8% | 1.8% |
| Yellow 5 | 40 | 14.7% | 4.8% |
| Yellow 6 | 28 | 10.3% | 3.4% |
| Caramel Coloring | 25 | 9.2% | 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, 2026-09-01.
Function
Other
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 EDTA
Products Containing EDTA
16 busy labels from the 273 indexed products that list EDTA:
High-volume peers for EDTA beside “Acai”
EDTA sits among other busy catalog rows (273 products, mean score 82.3/100). Comparable product-count neighbours: Acai · Celery Salt · Mono And Diglycerides Of Fatty Acids. Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.
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.
Using the EDTA evidence
Use the 273-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Open the product sample for EDTA and read how the term sits on real packages. Open product sample
- Move to a second ingredient page and compare registry fields plus catalog mass side by side. Open a peer record
- See the join rules behind screening scores before reading them as dietary advice. Open methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
EDTA — common follow-ups
Does EDTA carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. EDTA itself carries a CSPI "Safe" rating 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 EDTA? ▼
EDTA ranks in the top decile by product count (#1,578 of 247,206), appearing in 273 indexed products led by Beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What does EDTA do in food? ▼
EDTA is recorded as a other in source technical-effect fields.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (EDTA). 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.