Glycerol
Glycerol appears in 975 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
Glycerol appears in 975 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.
- 975
- catalogued products
- #672
- usage rank of 247,206
- 251
- named brands represented
- 45%
- 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.
What this page can and cannot answer
Audit the co-occurring flags first
59% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Glycerol as the trigger. Open records such as 4 Cherry Bakewell Tarts; 4F Gummy Dinosaur; 5 flavors candy canes, watermelon, pineapple, raspberry, orange, cherry and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 66.5/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 45% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.
59% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient
Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 975 of 975 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.
Glycerol sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#672 / 247,206)
- Usage rank
- #672
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, listed in more products than 99.7% of them.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 45%
- Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 975 products listing it (mean slot 12.7). Glycerol usually falls in the upper half of the list; this position does not measure its amount because source formatting, compound ingredients and labeling exceptions vary.
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 else is usually in the same product as Glycerol
Across the 975 products on this site that list Glycerol, 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. Acesulfame Potassium shows up about 16.8x more often with Glycerol than in the catalogue at large.
| Additive | Shared products | Share of Glycerol products | Share of all products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acesulfame Potassium | 295 | 30.3% | 1.8% |
| Aspartame | 293 | 30.1% | 0.9% |
| BHT | 267 | 27.4% | 1.1% |
| Blue 1 | 199 | 20.4% | 4.2% |
| Red 40 | 165 | 16.9% | 5.4% |
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 Glycerol
Products Containing Glycerol
16 busy labels from the 975 indexed products that list Glycerol:
High-volume peers for Glycerol beside “Liquid Sugar”
Top-decile company for Glycerol: 975 listings averaging 66.5/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Liquid Sugar; Apricots; Enriched With Niacin.
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.
Next steps from the Glycerol page
Use the 975-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.
- Review the sampled product records that list Glycerol to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. Browse linked labels
- Place Glycerol next to “Apricots” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Compare a peer
- Check the methodology for how FDA SAFFA, CSPI, and Open Food Facts rows are joined on this site. Open 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 Glycerol sits in heavily flagged products? ▼
59% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Glycerol is the trigger. None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.
Which product shelves show up most often with Glycerol? ▼
Glycerol ranks in the top decile by product count (#672 of 247,206), appearing in 975 indexed products led by Snacks. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Glycerol so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Glycerol appears in 975 products (#672 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Glycerol). 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.