Food Color
Food Color appears in 92 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
Food Color appears in 92 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.
- 92
- catalogued products
- #3,310
- usage rank of 247,206
- 25
- named brands represented
- 66%
- 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.
Reading this ingredient record
Audit the co-occurring flags first
59.8% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Food Color as the trigger. Open records such as 12pc shrimp tempura kabuki roll wr; Alfredo Pasta Sauce; Amazin mayo and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 88.5/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 66% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
59.8% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 92 of 92 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.
High-volume listing for Food Color - usage rank #3,310
- Usage rank
- #3,310
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 41 others that also appear in exactly 92 products, listed in more products than 98.7% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 66%
- Averaged label depth puts Food Color in the lower half of the list (66% of list length, mean slot 17.1). 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 else is usually in the same product as Food Color
Across the 92 products on this site that list Food Color, 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 10.1x more often with Food Color than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Food Color products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sucralose | 25 | 27.2% | 2.7% |
| Carrageenan | 11 | 12% | 4.5% |
| Caramel Coloring | 11 | 12% | 5.7% |
| Red 40 | 8 | 8.7% | 5.4% |
| Yellow 5 | 7 | 7.6% | 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 Food Color
Products Containing Food Color
High-volume slice (16 of 92) for products naming Food Color:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “100% Whole Grain Wheat Flour”)
Food Color sits among other busy catalog rows (92 products, mean score 88.5/100). Comparable product-count neighbours: 100% Whole Grain Wheat Flour · Added To Maintain Color · With Alkali. 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.
What to do with this Food Color record
Use the 92-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Open the product sample for Food Color and read how the term sits on real packages. Browse linked labels
- Place Food Color next to “Added To Maintain Color” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Open a peer record
- Check the methodology for how FDA SAFFA, CSPI, and Open Food Facts rows are joined on this site. See source joins
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Questions readers ask about Food Color
How should I read safety signals when Food Color sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
59.8% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Food Color is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Food Color? ▼
Food Color ranks in the top decile by product count (#3,310 of 247,206), appearing in 92 indexed products led by Condiments. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Food Color so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Food Color appears in 92 products (#3,310 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Food Color). 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.