Guarana

Guarana carries a source-backed screening score of 3/5 and appears in 58 indexed US food products. CSPI rates it “Certain People Should Avoid.”

Source-backed answer

Guarana appears in 58 catalogued products. CSPI rates it “Certain People Should Avoid.” 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.

58
catalogued products
#4,499
usage rank of 247,206
30
named brands represented
59%
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.

Guarana sits in the busiest tenth of the catalog (#4,499 / 247,206)

Usage rank
#4,499
of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 53 others that also appear in exactly 58 products.
Typical depth in an ingredient list
59%
Of the way down the captured list, averaged across the 58 products listing it (mean slot 12.9). Guarana usually falls in the lower half of the list; this position does not measure its amount because source formatting, compound ingredients and labeling exceptions vary.

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

Audit the co-occurring flags first

55.2% of the linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, making co-occurrence the dominant follow-up question. That figure does not identify Guarana as the trigger. Open records such as Acai Sorbet with Guarana - 1.3 KG Top Brazil (Inc free Cold Box & prep); Amazonia, Coconut Water + Mango Black Tea; Amazonia, Coconut Water + Peach Tea and inspect which ingredient row carries the caution marker. The 84.5/100 product average is therefore a triage signal for this surrounding formulation set, not an ingredient verdict. Its 59% average label depth helps locate the term when checking the package.

55.2% of linked products contain a separately flagged ingredient

Processing is unusually concentrated here: Group 4 accounts for 44 of 53 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 Guarana

Across the 58 products on this site that list Guarana, 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 17.9x more often with Guarana than in the catalogue at large.

Sucralose: +45.6ppSucralose+45.6ppCarrageenan: +12.7ppCarrageenan+12.7ppAcesulfame Potassium: +12ppAcesulfame Potassium+12ppRed 40: +4.9ppRed 40+4.9pp
Percentage-point gap vs the catalogue baseline rate for each additive, Guarana products only. Source: Open Food Facts ingredient lists.
Chart values as text

Unit: percentage points above/below baseline. Data current as of September 2026.

Sucralose
45.6pp
Carrageenan
12.7pp
Acesulfame Potassium
12pp
Red 40
4.9pp
Additive Shared products Share of Guarana products Share of all products
Sucralose 28 48.3% 2.7%
Carrageenan 10 17.2% 4.5%
Acesulfame Potassium 8 13.8% 1.8%
Red 40 6 10.3% 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.

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 Guarana

Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine. 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 16 entities by Safety score (X) and Flagged ingredients on label (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. High score, still flaggedLow score, more flaggedHigh score, fewer flaggedLow score, fewer flagged 60708090100110 00.511.522.5 Safety score Flagged ingredients on label Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Guarana
Per-product safety score and flagged-ingredient count from the same sampled listings shown below. Bubble size = linked ingredient rows. Source: Open Food Facts labels x FDA SAFFA x CSPI Chemical Cuisine.

High-volume peers for Guarana beside “Dried Banana Flakes”

Top-decile company for Guarana: 58 listings averaging 84.5/100. Catalog-mass neighbours in view: Dried Banana Flakes; Bean Sprouts; Bicarbonate.

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 Guarana record

Use the 58-product footprint and source labels as a starting point, then inspect the records most relevant to your question.

  • Open the product sample for Guarana and read how the term sits on real packages. See listed products
  • Compare Guarana with a peer such as “Dried Banana Flakes” on source-backed rating, FDA status, and product footprint. Open a peer record
  • Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. 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 Guarana sits in heavily flagged products?

55.2% of linked products contain at least one separately flagged ingredient, so the first task is locating which row carries the caution marker — not assuming Guarana is the trigger. Where a source rating exists, Guarana scores 3/5 on this site's screening scale and CSPI lists it as "Certain People Should Avoid". None of that replaces a product-, dose-, allergy-, or person-specific determination.

Which product shelves show up most often with Guarana?

Guarana ranks in the top decile by product count (#4,499 of 247,206), appearing in 58 indexed products led by Beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.

What function does Guarana serve when it appears beside other flagged additives?

Guarana is recorded as a other 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 (Guarana). 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.