Glycerin
Glycerin carries a source-backed screening score of 5/5 and appears in 6,934 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Safe.”
Source-backed answer
Glycerin appears in 6,934 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Safe.” 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.
- 6,934
- catalogued products
- #164
- usage rank of 247,206
- 1,216
- 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.
Glycerin: top-decile catalog footprint (#164 of 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #164
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.9% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 49%
- Mean relative depth 49% across 6,936 parsed labels, slot 16.5 on average. Glycerin tends to sit in the upper 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.
What this page can and cannot answer
Audit the co-occurring flags first
51.4% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Glycerin as the trigger. Open records such as 10" egg custard pie; 100% Natural Fruit And Nutty Layered Granola Bar; 100% natural trail mix, cran-beary almond and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 77.0/100 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.
51.4% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 6931 of 6931 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 Glycerin
Across the 6,934 products on this site that list Glycerin, 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. Red 40 shows up about 3.9x more often with Glycerin than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Glycerin products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red 40 | 1,461 | 21.1% | 5.4% |
| Blue 1 | 1,111 | 16% | 4.2% |
| Yellow 5 | 1,000 | 14.4% | 4.8% |
| Polysorbate 60 | 830 | 12% | 1.4% |
| Caramel Coloring | 803 | 11.6% | 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
ANTICAKING AGENT OR FREE-FLOW AGENT, DRYING AGENT, EMULSIFIER OR EMULSIFIER SALT, HUMECTANT, MASTICATORY SUBSTANCE, NUTRITIVE SWEETENER, SOLVENT OR VEHICLE, STABILIZER OR THICKENER, TEXTURIZER
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 Glycerin
Products Containing Glycerin
16 busy labels from the 6,934 indexed products that list Glycerin:
Glycerin vs other top-decile catalog footprints
Glycerin sits among other busy catalog rows (6,934 products, mean score 77/100). Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Egg Whites; Olive Oil; Soy Flour. 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
Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.
Next steps from the Glycerin page
Start from Glycerin's 6,934 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.
- Open the product sample for Glycerin and read how the term sits on real packages. See listed products
- Compare Glycerin with a peer such as “Egg Whites” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Compare a peer
- See the join rules behind screening scores before reading them as dietary advice. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I read safety signals when Glycerin sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
51.4% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Glycerin is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Glycerin scores 5/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Safe" 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 Glycerin? ▼
Glycerin ranks in the top decile by product count (#164 of 247,206), appearing in 6,934 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
What function does Glycerin serve when it appears beside other flagged additives? ▼
Glycerin is recorded as a anticaking agent or free-flow agent, drying agent, emulsifier or emulsifier salt, humectant, masticatory substance, nutritive sweetener, solvent or vehicle, stabilizer or thickener, texturizer 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 (Glycerin). 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.