Formic Acid
Formic Acid carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 9 indexed US food products.
Source-backed answer
Formic Acid appears in 9 catalogued products. CSPI has no rating attached in this snapshot. Its FDA SAFFA status is “Approved.” Those source labels describe the ingredient; they do not establish whether a particular product, dose, allergy, or diet is safe.
- 9
- catalogued products
- #16,390
- usage rank of 247,206
- 3
- 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.
Formic Acid sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#16,390 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #16,390
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 1,423 others that also appear in exactly 9 products.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 82%
- Averaged label depth puts Formic Acid near the end of the captured list (82% of list length, mean slot 27.0). 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: 2 of 9 records have some flagged component, while the rest do not. Compare Buitoni Tortellini Pasta Mixed Cheese All Natural Fresh; Buitoni, four cheese ravioli; Shockin' Blue Raspberry to see how surrounding formulations change; do not assign their 70–100 score range to Formic Acid itself. The ingredient most often sits near the end of the captured list, and Plant-based foods and beverages supplies the most useful like-for-like starting point for a label review.
2 of 9 linked records have some flagged component
All 7 NOVA-classified records cluster most heavily in Group 4, while the first-category labels split across several shelves. That makes the 70–100 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
FLAVOR ENHANCER, FLAVORING AGENT OR ADJUVANT, FORMULATION AID
How do the sampled products compare?
Each point is one of the 9 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 Formic Acid
Products Containing Formic Acid
A sample of 9 high-volume listings among the 9 indexed products containing Formic Acid:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass
Top-decile company for Formic Acid: 9 listings averaging 96.1/100.
Similar mean product score
Mean product-score neighbours (≥50 scored products), kept separate from the product-count peers above.
Next steps from the Formic Acid page
9 product rows plus any FDA/CSPI fields on Formic Acid are the evidence base — drill into the listings that matter for your decision.
- Open the product sample for Formic Acid and read how the term sits on real packages. Browse linked labels
- Compare another ingredient’s source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. 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 Formic Acid carry its own safety label in this catalog? ▼
This is a mixed neighborhood: some linked products carry a separate flag while others do not. Formic Acid itself carries and FDA SAFFA status "Approved" 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 Formic Acid? ▼
Formic Acid ranks in the top decile by product count (#16,390 of 247,206), appearing in 9 indexed products led by Plant-based foods and beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What does Formic Acid do in food? ▼
Formic Acid is recorded as a flavor enhancer, flavoring agent or adjuvant, formulation aid in source technical-effect fields.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Formic Acid). 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.